AN EVENING WITH ISLA
Written by Iron-K, 2015

Even at six in the evening, the bar at the student centre was beginning to fill up as students around the campus got out of the final classes scheduled for the week. The lights had just come on in the DJ booth, and a couple of especially enthusiastic figures were already writhing in the dance floor's flickering light.

At the other end of the room, the most noise was coming from a table in the sunken section opposite the bar, where a group of five males were halfway through their first drinks of the night. At the moment, their attention was focused on the grayish white mouse at the end of the table, who was touching his fingertips on its laminated surface as he counted off a list to the others.

"A vixen, a lioness, a blue husky girl... and two rabbits." He leaned back triumphantly, downing the rest of his drink.

"What, both at the same time?" the bright red squirrel sitting next to him piped up, then slapped him on the back as the mouse lifted the glass away from his mouth. "Our Maxwell's become a real playmouse...!"

"Heh, no..." the mouse answered as he put his glass back down. "I should get them together, though! I think they'd get on well..."

He grinned around at the others, then held his hand out. "You go next, Vaash - tell 'em about the success you've been having with the boys here..."

The large, stocky white dragon across from the mouse ran his hand through his ginger mohawk and smiled self-confidently.

"Oh, you know," he said with a shrug. "Used to be someone new every night. Then I started seeing Pau - we've been four months now."

"So you're settling down already?" the squirrel smiled. "I didn't think you were the domestic type..."

"The three of you missed out, not coming to Westhouse with me and Vaash!" Maxwell enthused before the dragon could react, leaning back with his hands behind his head and looking around at the other figures seated at the table. "Easy classes... friendly people... and I'm here, of course..."

"Yeah, why do you think I moved to the other side of the country?" the squirrel asked, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Munde, you go next!"

"Oh! Well... let's see..." The curly-haired mustelid at the other end of the table brought his hands together, clasping the forefinger of one hand in the fist of the other and looking to the ceiling as if thinking. "Ferret..."

"You're not meant to count yourself!" Vaash scoffed before he'd even finished the word. "Is that it?"

"Er... yeah." The ferret gave a sheepish grin as he put his hands back below the table again.

"Ferret girls are nice," the bright red squirrel nodded. "They're kind of skinny, though... now, mouse girls, on the other hand..."

"You pulled a mouse, Calder?" The white mouse looked up interestedly as he interrupted loudly, twitching down a little again when he realized that another mouse girl was passing between them and the next table. She shot a glance down at him before walking on, and he slowly looked over to watch her swinging tail, waiting for her to be out of earshot before continuing. "How was she?" he whispered.

"She was... squishy. In all the best places," the squirrel shared a grin with his neighbour. "And there was a catgirl I left the bar with, as well, a couple of weeks later... she doesn't really count, though."

"Why not?" The ferret a few chairs away put his hands on the edge of the table and leaned forwards across it.

"'Cause I was sick into a hedge outside and she took off."

"Always classy, Calder..." As the rest of the table burst into guffaws, the dragon shook his head, his miniature glowstick earrings arcing back and forth. "How about you, Nyte - the ladies out at Anglia been treating you well?"

The group's eyes turned to the gray-black feline across the table from Vaash, who was staring distractedly at his plastic glass, blinking as the occasional beam of light from the dancefloor passed over his face.

"Hey, Nyte..." The dragon lifted his hand and smacked it down on the table, and the dark-furred feline jumped and looked up, the tips of his white spiked hair bobbing with his head's movement. "What's the matter with you? Last year you'd have been right in among the girls on the dancefloor by now..."

"Yeah - you see those two?" The ferret at Nyte's side nudged him and pointed subtly up at a white wolfess and purple jackal girl standing with cocktails at a small raised table a few feet away, just in front of the lights of the dancefloor. "They've been glancing over at us since they arrived..." He looked up as the wolfess turned her head, her long blue hair spilling slightly over her shoulder as their gazes met. "Ahoy!" he added cheerily, putting his hand up and flicking his fingers back and forth in a wave to them, making the dragon opposite launch his drink over both his shoulders as he snorted into it with laughter.

"I think Nyte's saving his energy for tonight!" Calder called from the other end of the table, prompting a round of whoops which Nyte responded to with a smirk and a small nod, still looking down at his drink.

"Well, I'm not passing a chance like this up - hey, wait!" The ferret leapt to his feet as the girls turned away, the jackal giving a smirk as she saw him hurrying around the table to catch up with them.

Nyte smiled after him, his eyes going down to the back of the wolfess's bikini-like top for just a moment before he looked to the dragon, whose arms were spread as he stared down at his soaked front, his luminous earrings swinging as he tilted his head to examine the extent of the damage. He moved his hands down to his pockets looking for something to dry himself off, then stretched over to pick up a clean coaster from the end of the table.

"Another drink, Vaash?" Nyte asked nonchalantly, leaning forward and propping himself on his elbow with a smirk. The dragon glanced up at him, ineffectually scraping at his chest with the tiny cork mat.

"Yeah. Thanks. Maybe a cloth..." he growled. "But Munde should get this one, he always does that at the worst time..."

"I'll get it back from him," Nyte answered. He stood up, taking his near-empty glass with him and downed the rest of it, raising his eyebrows just slightly as he saw Munde enthusiastically chatting to the two girls from before at the other end of the room. As he set his drink down, the gray-tinged mouse seated on his left looked up.

"A trip to the bar! I'm always ready for that..." He jumped to his feet as well, pointing at the squirrel who had been next to him at the end of the table. "My turn, Cal - what are you having?"

"Same again - thanks, Maxwell," the squirrel answered, pushing his empty glass away in readiness for another.

The two of them walked over to the bar in the corner of the room, the slightly shorter mouse scurrying behind Nyte as he caught up. Two black fox ears were visible poking up from behind it as the bartender stacked something into the fridge.

"Hi - a Padraigh and a Jix Hyper, please," Nyte leaned forwards as he put his hands over the bar and called over it.

"And two Red Diesels," the mouse said as he reached into the back pocket of his jeans. He produced a crumpled green note and added it on top of Nyte's on the polished surface, pushing them both forwards. The fox behind it nodded and leaned to the side to take out a cluster of glasses before heading to the other end of the bar, setting one of them underneath a tap and starting the dark liquid pouring down into it from a height before turning his attention to the other drinks.

"So, Nyte!" Maxwell propped himself on the bar with his elbow leaned around into the feline's field of vision with a smile. "Walk me through how tonight came about again..."

Nyte grimaced, having known the question was coming. "...Okay," he said distractedly, scratching at the back of his head. "It's nothing, really - after we were on IZ, we got each others' emails and we've talked online a lot... I mentioned I was coming up to visit you guys, and her college is a few cities over from here, so she wanted to meet up again. It's just dinner out together..."

"Yes, I know, you said, nothing more than that," the mouse recited back to him incredulously. "And what's happening after dinner? Come on, say it again..."

"Well..." Nyte breathed out heavily as he prepared to admit it, blowing the long fringe of his spiky hair up. "As she can't get back tonight, she, er... booked us a hotel room as well..."

The mouse grinned in triumph, turning to take his drink as two half-pint glasses full of striking red liquid were set out on the bar. "And how do you think that's not a sign?" He reached a hand up to poke Nyte on the nosepad. "You, my lucky friend, are going to be up to your nuts in bald lizard-girl pussy by the end of the night..."

"Heh..." Nyte swallowed and forced an awkward laugh, looking at his feet and running his hand along the fur on the back of his neck as he stared over at the barman's back, willing the trickle of dark beer from the tap to hurry up.

"God, I'm jealous of you..." The mouse turned to put his hands on the bar, drumming them against it.

"What, because she doesn't have hair?" Nyte asked.

"Yeah!" Maxwell answered enthusiastically, then realized why he'd asked. "You know, I mean... downstairs...?" he said in a failed attempt at a whisper, pointing unsubtly down at his crotch and circling his finger.

A puzzled expression crossed Nyte's face, and he glanced over both his shoulders to make sure the others were still at the table, then leaned in a little closer to the mouse. "What, lizards don't...?"

Maxwell nodded sagely. "No headfur means no hair anywhere, guaranteed. Take it from me, I know..."

"But you said you haven't..."

"Don't you have the internet at Anglia? How the hell have you not looked this up?" Maxwell interrupted, shaking his head despairingly. "One too many nights in alone, a bit of curiosity... there are whole sites for... smooth fans," he smirked.

Nyte did his best not to change his expression, though he felt the fur on his cheeks heating up. "Is that a... thing?" he asked. "People like that?"

"Ohhh, yeah." A mischevous grin grew on Maxwell's face. "If they're smooth down there they're kissable... lickable," he added as he stood on his tiptoes to direct his mouth to Nyte's ear. "And 'cause they're all exposed, they really love grinding down against your fur..."

"Okay, okay..." Nyte shuddered and put out both hands to silence him as his ears flattened, looking around again even though the two of them had to be practically face to face to be heard above the music blaring from the other side of the room. The fox behind the bar finally put down the dark pint glass and slid a brightly colored can across to him, and he hurriedly reached forward to open it, pouring the pink sparkling liquid into the last empty glass and watching the foam swirl as he tried to think of something to distract the mouse. "You don't know she's a... you know, naturally bald, though. Maybe she shaves..."

"Shaves! How many girls do you know who shave their heads? That's the only place you want 'em to have hair..."

Nyte sighed. "You know, Maxwell..." he said as he shook his head, picking up the two glasses and turning away from the bar as the mouse grabbed a cloth and slung it over his shoulder. "College made you really weird..."

"Says the guy who met his girlfriend on Industrial Zone!" the mouse called back to him brightly, putting down one of the glasses in front of the squirrel at the end of the table and then tossing the cloth across to Vaash. Nyte felt his cheeks burning, concentrating on the table between him and the stocky dragon as he put the drinks down and hoping no further comment would be made.

"It's a head start on most girls, isn't it?" Nyte cringed as Calder spoke up, raising his glass to Maxwell as the mouse took his seat again. "I mean, you've already seen her half-naked and slippery..."

He began to laugh, then realized nobody was joining in and grumbled as he put the glass to his lips, taking a generous swig.

"When did this happen, anyway?" Maxwell asked. "I mean, your fur's black again, so it must have been a while..."

"What? Oh... right," Nyte looked down at himself, stuttering and forcing a laugh as he tried to disguise his embarrassment. "No, the... stuff comes off easy... it was three months ago, I think?"

"I can't believe you went on that show," the dragon shook his head, dragging the dishcloth across his beer-soaked skin and scrubbing at his top. "Pretty sure I grew out of getting mucky before primary school..."

"Come on, Vaash - were you the only kid who never wanted to be on Fun House?" Maxwell asked as Nyte's ears flattened. He started humming the theme music, making the dragon growl under his breath.

"Besides, have you even seen this thing?" Calder asked. "Weekly on Thursday nights, four girls in bikinis running around bouncy obstacle courses - I'd buy a drink for whoever came up with that idea!"

"Hah, yeah - we're not exactly watching for the gunge any more..." Maxwell agreed.

"Hey, don't say that," Calder interrupted him. "Did you see the one at the end of the last season where they slimed that gecko girl in the white top? You could see her nips and everything!" he grinned, gesticulating at his own chest as the mouse turned to him.

"Wow, I must've missed that..." the mouse said as he shook his head. "Have you got it saved?"

As Calder pulled out his phone and the mouse and squirrel huddled together, Vaash sighed, then leaned forward across the table and tapped a claw against the surface of Nyte's glass.

"Still not on the grown-up drinks?"

Nyte jumped as he turned away from trying to furtively look over the mouse's shoulder at the Industrial Zone clips being browsed through, and cleared his throat to give his rehearsed response - he'd become used to getting this question from friends he'd made at Anglia University. "No, that stuff just slows you down," he said back, pointing down at Vaash's glass. "This keeps me going all night..."

"So Isla's in for a good time!" Maxwell looked up and grinned.

"I meant on the..." Nyte started, but the wave of laughter had already taken hold, and he sagged, joining in with a smirk as he let it pass.

"Ah, Nyte... you really walked into that one," Calder shook his head. As Maxwell stared down enthralled at the video on the phone, the squirrel reached forward and dragged one of the laminated menu cards over from the center of the table with his finger. "So, is anyone else hungry?"

"What time is it?" Nyte asked aloud, ducking down to flip his own phone open as he did so, seeing that it was nearly quarter to the hour. "Actually I'd better head over there..."

"Okay, okay... go off and enjoy your swanky dinner." The dragon waved his hand in the air dismissively, but smirked into his glass. "We'll survive on nachos like always..."

Nyte nodded and got up, nearly taking a step away before he remembered about his backpack under the table. He ducked down and dragged it out, hoisting it on to his shoulder as he turned to the mouse next to him.

"Have a fun time," Maxwell spoke first, then reached up to pat him on the back. Nyte raised his eyes to the ceiling and turned to him, trying to think of some sort of comeback before he realized he was being quite sincere.

"Thanks. See you all again soon," he said as he raised his hand, turning away from the table and heading for the exit.

---

Nyte stepped out into the evening air, wriggling the other strap of his backpack on as he walked away from the entrance to the student center. He paused for a moment to check his phone for the route, then fished his earphones out of his pocket and slid them on to his head, tapping the title of a fast-paced electronic song. He quickly made for the crossing while the light was still green, and continued to jog to the beat of the music, dodging other students milling about the pedestrian zone of the university's central campus before taking off down a street towards the main road.

As he moved, he looked up above eye level to check for street signs - he had visited his friends at Westhouse College once before, but hadn't navigated the city alone, and a few songs through the playlist later, he was beginning to regret not leaving more time to find his destination. But just as he had reached his hand into his pocket to check the map on his phone again, he turned on to the next street and saw the giant lettering of the hotel's name lit up on the side of the building he was approaching.

He slowed to a walk as he approached, continuing to fumble in his pocket for his phone and checking the time as he turned the music off. At the front of the building, a shallow set of stairs led up away from the street, covered by a long domed red awning. He glanced around the figures walking to and from the hotel entrance, but didn't recognize any of them. Picking his earphones out, he looked back down at the phone as he took a couple of steps towards the entrance, scrolling through his list of contacts to find Isla.

"Hey, kittenface," a voice came from behind him. He spun around to see a figure in a long beige coat and a cadet hat approaching him from the other side of the walkway. She reached a hand up to tip the brim of her cap upwards, and he found himself face to face with the grin of the lizardess he had last seen a few months ago.

"Oh! Oh - hi, Isla..." he stumbled as he wriggled his phone back into his pocket, still trying to get his breath back from the run. He cleared his throat and straightened up with a smile.

"You walked right past me! What's the matter - you'd only recognize me in a bikini?" she laughed. She spread her arms as she stepped forwards.

Nyte joined her laugh awkwardly, and put his arms around her bulky coat to return the hug. "It's quite a difference!" he said, smiling as she rubbed her mittened hands up and down his back. "You look like you're ready for winter..."

"I get cold easily," she shrugged.

He smiled as they broke off the hug, and there was a pause as Isla stared back at him.

"So, uh... how have you been?" he stumbled to fill in the silence.

"Oh, you know." Isla said as she turned to grab the handle of her small wheeled suitcase, hoisting it up then nodding towards the door "Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's go," he nodded, and turned to head up the shallow steps. As the lizardess stepped up beside him she threaded her free arm through his, and he smiled as they stepped together through the large automatic revolving door.

As the door swept closed behind them, the noise of the traffic outside faded to be replaced with the murmur of the chatter coming from the restaurant area to their left. Nyte walked slowly forward as he took in the decor - they were in a short corridor area that led to the lobby, panelled in dark wood with a red carpet running over a polished marble-effect floor. In front of them, a large water feature stood between them and the desk, an abstract collection of channels twisting around each other, the lighting from within casting shadows that moved as the water ran through them. He looked back at Isla, and it was only then that he noticed the waistcoated blue wolf looking expectantly at the two of them from behind the podium at the side of the room.

"Will you be joining us for dinner, sir and ma'am?" he smiled with a slight bow as Nyte moved to approach.

"Yeah - Stornoway," Isla nodded, stepping up beside him.

"Certainly..." The wolf glanced down at the screen facing up towards him and tapped a couple of things on it. "I see you, table for two... and you'll be staying with us tonight?" he asked, indicating towards their bags.

"Yeah... I mean, that's right," Nyte responded.

"If you'd care to leave your luggage here, I can have it taken up - I'd just need the credit card for the room," he soothed.

"Uh..." Nyte started, unsure of letting his bag out of his sight, but Isla answered before he did.

"Sure, that's fine," she said, unzipping the small handbag slung over her shoulder, and turned to Nyte as she handed a card to the lupine. "I'll get the room and you get the meal, right?"

"Right," he said quickly.

"Can I take Madam's hat and coat as well?"

"Sure." Isla removed her hat and Nyte smiled as he saw the attractive lizard girl's face unobscured again, the sight of her instantly reminding him of the studio where they had last been together. As she pulled her coat off, his gaze dropped along with his jaw - she was wearing a red dress adorned with a large bow at the front, the cut making no secret of her voluptuous curves.

Nyte looked her up and down as she handed her outerwear to the host, and he spun around to put them on a hook on the wall, then came around to pull the suitcase beneath them. Nyte wriggled his backpack off to add it to the pile as the wolf waved a porter over, then took a small pile of faux leather-bound menus off the side of his stand.

"Right this way, please."

The host glided away from the podium and half-turned towards them as he took a step through the archway into the room beyond. Isla followed him, and Nyte dashed around to catch up. He looked around with his eyes wide as he stepped into the restaurant area - a maze of square tables adorned with frilly tablecloths, with about half of the room taken up by a raised section on which they were standing. A brass banister divided the room, breaking in a couple of places to allow for a shallow set of steps down to the lower section, where they could see a bar where raw seafood was being prepared. At the sides of the steps, a few large ornate marble-effect columns stretched up to the high ceiling. A white grand piano stood on a dais in one corner, though it was currently unoccupied.

"Are we meant to tip or something?" Nyte whispered over Isla's shoulder as the two of them were led through the tables.

"At the end," she said back over her shoulder, waving him down.

The wolf led them to a small table at the edge of the raised section of the room, the brass rail curving around between them and the other half of the restaurant floor. It was adorned with two napkins arranged into fan shapes, several stemmed glasses of various shapes, and a few flowers arranged in a square vase in the centre. The wolf pulled a chair out and nodded to Isla, and Nyte took his own chair opposite her as she was seated.

"Here you are - please enjoy your stay with us," he said smoothly, handing one of the menus to Isla and then the rest to Nyte, before taking another slight bow and walking off back the way they had come. Nyte watched him go, and then turned his attention to Isla, who was staring back at him with a smile.

"Wow," he started. "This is a... pretty classy place you chose for us," he gestured, looking around the large dining area again.

"Yep - my dad's been here with clients a few times... he said it was really good," Isla replied.

"It sure looks the part..." Nyte said. He stopped looking around and returned his eyes to her, realizing he'd forgotten to say something.

"You... really look incredible," he stuttered as he gesticulated at her scarlet dress, the phrase more true than he had ever imagined.

"Oh, thank you," she smiled, looking down at herself for a moment. "You're still the handsome kitten I remember as well..."

"Heh..." He smiled, and scratched the back of his ear as he looked down at the table. "It's... weird seeing you in real life again. I mean, good weird..." he added quickly as he looked up at her smiling at his flusteredness. "It's just... really different from where I last saw you!"

"Yeah, that's true..." Isla gave a small laugh. "It'll be hard to remember we don't have to watch for slime traps this time..."

Nyte laughed politely back even as he desperately tried to think of something to keep the conversation going, his mentally prepared plan for it forgotten. Idly feeling in his pocket, he felt his earphones still there where he'd hastily stuffed them when he'd met up with Isla, and he took them out, beginning to wind the cable up around his hand.

"What were you listening to on your way?" Isla asked, and he froze.

"Oh... uh. It's something that, er, I wrote..." he hesitated. "It's kind of a work in progress..."

"Can I listen?" she asked brightly. "You've told me about these, but you always said they weren't ready..."

He paused. "Yeah... sure," he responded, unable to think of a good reason to say no, and wriggled the cable off his fingers. He plugged the end into his phone and handed the earphones across to Isla. Hitting the play button, he watched as she held the speakers to the side of her head, and waited tensely as she closed her eyes and listened for a few moments.

"It's nice... kind of relaxing," she concluded, passing the arrangement back to him. "What's it called?"

"Oh, it... doesn't really have a name yet," he lied, hastily wrapping the cables of the earphones into a circle and then pushing them back into his pocket. When he looked up, a raccoon woman was approaching their table.

"Good evening, sir and madam - my name is Shelley, I'll be your sommelier this evening," she said with the same well-practiced slight bow that they had received from the host. "Can I interest you in any pairings from our wine selection?"

Nyte, already feeling out of his depth, looked across for Isla to answer, then realized she had been addressing him.

"Er... no, sorry, I don't drink," he fumbled. "Isla, how about you...?"

"No, not tonight," she replied, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Can we just get a water pitcher?"

"Certainly," she said with a nod, and took a couple of steps over to the waiter's station near their table. She picked up one of the fluted pitchers that were lined up on it, a layer of finely cubed ice and citrus fruits floating on its surface, and placed it gently down on their table as she deftly gathered up the empty wine glasses with her other hand.

"Enjoy your meal," she added before turning away and moving on to the next table.

Nyte leaned forward to take the pitcher's handle and poured it into the square glass that remained on his side of the table, then glanced across and leaned forward awkwardly to fill Isla's as well. He smiled as she thanked him, then set it down again and turned his attention to the menu.

"What are you thinking?" he asked as he looked it over - inside the booklet, a column of dish names were printed on some sort of marbled paper in a delicate faux-handwritten typeface.

"I think I'll just get an entree... it's easier to watch the figure that way," she said, patting the gentle curve of her tummy through her dress.

"You look fine to me," Nyte said, immediately wondering if it was a strange thing to say as soon as the sentence had left his mouth, but his thought was interrupted as he saw her peeking over the menu at him.

"Besides," she continued slyly, "I don't want to be too weighed down tonight..."

"Heh..." Nyte tried to laugh the comment off, but shifted himself in the seat as he felt a twitch between his legs, and as Isla put the menu down in front of her, he found himself looking directly at the cleavage she was showing above the bow of her dress.

Trying not to stare, he flicked his eyes down the menu again. Looking at the seven or eight main courses, he concentrated on the ones he could just about pronounce, and tapped his finger against one.

"Do you know what a... cassy-atore is?" he asked.

"Oh - cacciatore," Isla corrected him. "It's means it's in a... tomato and onion sauce with wine. The alcohol gets cooked off," she added quickly.

Nyte considered for a moment and then nodded, closing the menu and setting it down. "Yeah, that sounds good," he nodded.

"And I'll try the Caledon salmon," she answered, clapping her menu closed. Nyte looked over Isla's shoulder as a white gull waiter quickly noticed they were ready, and Isla twisted around to see him approaching among the neighbouring tables.

"Good evening, sir and madam - are you ready to order?" he asked, looking at them over the tops of the small round glasses nestled on his polished beak. As he got nods from both of them, he withdrew a notebook from his pocket and flipped it open smartly.

"Madam?" he prompted, turning to Isla first. As she made her order, Nyte looked down at the menu again, lips moving as he silently rehearsed how to say his choice.

"And for you, sir?"

"Uh..." Nyte pointed down at the menu as he hesitated. "The... cass..."

"Cacciatore," Isla grinned from the other end of the table.

"Yeah, that," he agreed, vaguely waving a finger at her.

"Very good," the gull sniffed, his pen flying elegantly over the notebook in front of him. "I will get those to you presently."

He held his hand out to receive their menus, then tucked them under his arm, turned sharply and stalked away. Nyte watched him descend the shallow stairs to the lower part of the restaurant, then realized he needed to fill the silence.

"Er, how did your last exam go?" he piped up as he turned back to Isla, remembering what they'd been talking about online the day before he'd left to visit his friends. "The... fluid dynamics one?"

"Heh... not as interesting as you think," she smiled. "Most of it was kind of easy, but there was a question on barometric pressure that was a bitch..."

"I wouldn't even know where to start," he smiled, taking a sip of his water. "I could never do the stuff you do..."

"Well, once you know the formulae it's just pushing numbers around," Isla shrugged. "How about you - you've still got a while until they start?"

"Yeah, still a couple of weeks..." Nyte replied, a small flutter of nerves flaring up as he pictured the timetable that he'd tacked up on his wall and then largely ignored.

"And what's your subject? I know you must have told me..." she continued.

"Er, a bit of everything," he said. "I know Music's the one I want to do, but I'm taking history and a couple of astronomy courses as well..."

"Oh, wow, I keep forgetting that you're still a first year..." Isla shook her head. "So why did you choose astronomy?"

"It sounded the most interesting out of what they had," he said "They've got this huge dome-shaped observatory on top of the hill behind the student dorms - it's a hike to get there, but it's amazing..."

"White, with a telescope poking out of a slot in the roof?" Isla smiled.

"Yeah! It's the real thing..."

Glad of the subject to talk about, he began to tell her about some of the group work he'd done, when they had spent a night in the observatory photographing and watching the path of a comet. Just as he began to wonder if he was boring her, he saw their waiter approaching up the steps again, and Isla turned around to follow his gaze as the gull turned towards them, holding a shiny tray at shoulder height and some sort of frame at his waist.

Nyte watched him put the frame down in front of him and knock it open with his foot, revealing it to be a stand, then he knelt to put the tray down on top of it. As he came up, he took hold of one of the large shallow bowl-plates on it and placed it gently in front of Isla.

"The Caledon salmon, madam," he announced, then turned back to the tray. "And for you, sir, the house cacciatore..."

"Thanks," he said, drawing back a little from the rising steam as the gull took the napkin that was still at his place setting and replaced it with the plate. Slices of precisely cut meat were arranged leaning against each other in a spiral in the centre, nestled in a thin sauce with finely diced vegetables and decorated with a couple of tomatoes cut into floral shapes around the edge.

He looked up from the impressively arranged meal as the waiter turned back to them with the other item on the tray, which was an absurdly large carved wooden grinder. "Black pepper?"

"Yeah, go on," Isla nodded, leaning back as he stretched over and gave the top of the device a few twists, dark flakes floating down on to her plate. He gestured towards Nyte with it.

"Er, no, I'm fine," he said, holding a hand up.

"Enjoy," the gull bobbed his head one last time, and picked up his tray and closed the stand in one smooth movement before leaving them to themselves.

"Heh, wow..." he said, leaning across to Isla when the gull was out of earshot. "I've never seen anything served like this before..."

"Never eaten out somewhere nice?" she asked.

"Not really. The food hall at the university's about my limit..." he shrugged. Glancing around his place setting, he took the spoon off the saucer with the upturned coffee cup next to him and dipped it in, coming up with a spoonful of the liquid with a few vegetable slivers in it. Holding it carefully above the plate, he leaned forward and tipped it into his mouth, recoiling hastily as he realized its heat and swallowing quickly.

"You okay?" he heard the lizard girl ask, blinking water out of his eyes as the spoon clattered on to the table.

"Yeah, it's nice - hot, though..." Nyte leaned forward to grab his water and quickly took a gulp, cooling his slightly burned tongue, then picked up his knife and fork and carved a piece off the meat instead. This time he blew on it gently before putting it in his mouth, eyes widening a little as he tasted its flavour.

"Wow, that's good..." he said between chews, a rich savoury taste filling his mouth that was unlike anything vegetable-related he had tried before. Already preparing for another bite, he looked over to Isla's plate, where she had started on the corner of her serving of fish on some sort of cooked greens, topped with a sauce with light seeds in it. "How's yours?"

Isla swallowed before answering. "It's great - this is the one my dad said was his favorite," she said. She whittled some more off the filet on to her fork and held it up across the table. "Want to try some?"

"Yeah, thanks..." Nyte took the fork from her and tapped the flaky fish on to the wide rim of his plate before handing it back, then passed a cut of the meat from his own meal across to her between his fork and knife.

"You were supposed to eat it right off the fork..." she said, mocking a disappointed tone as she scooped up the forkful Nyte had offered her. She put it into her mouth, looking thoughtful as she chewed. "But yeah, they did great with that too!"

The two of them ate without further conversation for a few minutes. Just as Nyte felt the silence was beginning to get awkward, Isla suddenly spoke up.

"You know something I've never asked?" she said. "You use 'Nyte' everywhere - is it short for anything, or...?"

"Nitrogen," he interrupted her quickly.

The blue lizardess opposite him laughed, and leaned forwards on her elbows, pointing her fork in his direction. "I mean it! Is 'Nyte' just your full name, or what...?"

Nyte sighed, his ears flattening a little as he looked to the ceiling, and he reached down and squirmed one hip slightly upward as he fished his wallet out of his trouser pocket.

"Wait, you're serious?" Isla leaned closer as he brought it up and flipped it open, brandishing it with his arm outstretched, his driving licence visible through the plastic window on the inside pocket. Her eyes widened as she read the first name on it. 

"Wow. Just as well their last name wasn't 'Dioxide' or something..." A grin formed on her face, then she quickly closed her mouth. "Sorry. I bet you must have got a lot of that in school..."

"No, I just made sure that nobody found out," he answered as he snapped the wallet shut and wriggled it back into his pocket. 

"How did that happen?" Isla asked fascinatedly, her eyes following the card with the evidence of his name even after it left her sight.

"It was my dad," he said. "Something to do with the number seven for luck, but he didn't want to just name me after a number..."

"Oh... cause it's the seventh element, yeah. What a solution," Isla shook her head, then a smirk came to her face. "'Nitrogen'... that explains why you couldn't handle your cutlery, though."

"What do you mean?" he asked, looking 

"'Cause it's the commonest thing on the planet."

Nyte paused, processing what she'd just said for a moment, then gave a real laugh.

"Sorry," she grinned as he shook his head.

"No, that was good - I'd never heard that one before!" he smiled, relaxing his shoulders. "I'm just glad I heard your name out loud before I saw it written down..."

"Yeah, nobody at school could say it right," Isla said. "I had to tell them it was like 'island'... how would you have written it?"

"Don't know... A - I - L - A?" he suggested, sharing another smile with her.

"So, uh..." he continued. Even though he was beginning to feel more at ease, he faltered, fiddling with the food on his plate. "You know, I meant to ask - how did someone of your... background end up on Industrial Zone?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well..." he hesitated. "You know, with your dad being a... what is he, an estate agency high-up?"

"That's my mother," she answered. "My dad owns a design firm."

"Wow," he paused. "So, I mean, you're from a pretty rich family... I wouldn't have expected..."

"Heh..." She looked down at her plate a little uncomfortably, and paused with a shrug before answering. "Well, I'd just got into college and it seemed like fun, something I wouldn't have got to do if I still lived at home." She paused and looked up at him. "I never imagined I'd meet anyone like you there either, though."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, so... jumpy," she smiled. "What made you go on, then?"

Nyte's mind raced as he tried to think of an answer, attempting to disguise it by chewing the food in his mouth thoughtfully. Eventually, he chose to tell her the whole truth, and swallowed.

"I, um. I..." he started again, trying to think of how to phrase it. "I always liked... watching girls getting messy. On the old shows, I mean..."

"Oh, you... horny kitten," the lizardess grinned back. "I knew it - you should have seen your face when any of us got gunged! IZ must have been like porn to you..."

"Mmmgh..." Nyte cringed, his ears flattening as his cheek fur heated.

"So I bet you've been a keen watcher for a while?" she smirked. "Come on, what's your favorite game to watch the girls in?"

"I..." Nyte blushed, glancing around as he thought desperately about the scenes that he'd watched on repeat in private, and then lowered his voice even among the noise of the chatter in the room. "The... Hotseat," he said, his cheeks burning as he said it.

"Come on, give me more than that!" she smiled. "What about it?"

Nyte swished his tail behind him and whimpered again at her questioning. "Um," he hesitated. "You know... the way they get hit on their, er... chest and then it drips down..." As her face broke into a grin again, he smiled back weakly through his embarrassment.

"So..." she continued. "How'd you enjoy the show when I got put in there?"

"Oh, that... that was the hottest I'd ever seen," he stumbled. He watched the reaction on her face carefully, then rallied and smiled, leaning forward to whisper across to her.

"And when Alex gave me the button to gunge you..." he started, then nearly yelped out loud as the blue wolf who had shown them in suddenly leaned into his field of vision.

"Room keys, sir and madam," he stated as he laid a small floral plate on the side of the table, on which were two card keys. "One hundred and five - it's ready when you are." He nodded calmly, then straightened up and walked away.

"Th... thanks..." Nyte said after him embarrassedly, but he was already out of earshot. With his cheeks burning, he looked across at Isla, who was grinning amusedly.

"Do you think he heard?" he asked.

"He must have overheard weirder things than that!" the lizardess replied, shaking her head with a smile. "But I bet we're the only couple in here talking about gunge..."

She stretched up to look over the railing next to them, and he turned as well to look over at the busy restaurant floor. They were easily the youngest people in the room, with most of the clientele being older couples or groups of city office workers in their jackets and ties, talking loudly across the tables or into their cellphones.

"They don't know what they missed out on," Nyte said with a smirk, then turned back to Isla as a question came to him. "So, your turn - how did you discover this stuff?"

Isla paused as she sipped her water. "Oh, it was all over the place on TV when we were kids," she shook her head. "Almost all my friends at school wanted to be gunged on something or other..."

"And what was your favorite?" Nyte pressed, enjoying turning the tables on the lizardess who had had him blushing just moments before. "Come on, I'll tell you mine too..."

"Um..." The blue reptilian hesitated, gazing down at her plate as she twisted her fork around. "Well... I didn't get to watch TV much. My parents thought there were better things to do with your time, you know?"

He nodded, encouraging her to go on.

"But we all used to go round to my friend's house on Saturday mornings, and they would have it on in the background..." She smiled as she recalled the memory. "This might have been before your time, but there was a game Sat-AM used to do where a kid brought their parent in and they had to answer questions right to stop getting tipped into the swamp..."

"Yeah, I've seen a lot of those online..." Nyte interjected before he had the chance to think about what he was saying. Even as he realized he would never have admitted that to anyone else, Isla continued like nothing had happened.

"And... you know, I saw that and it was so far from anything I'd have got to do with my parents. So I guess it kind of stuck in my mind," she finished.

After a pause, she looked up at him, realizing her turn was over. "So, what about you? Who was the first gunged girl you jerked it to?" she grinned, and Nyte swallowed as he realized it was his turn to confess again.

"Okay..." he breathed out, his heart pounding as he thought of how best to phrase his response. "Remember that game on Massive where they had to sit under the giant nose?" he asked. "I remember you talked about it when we were in the IZ changing room..."

"We did!" she nodded. "You looked kind of flustered at that..."

"Heh..." He nodded, blushing. "I used to watch that show for the cartoons when I was really young, and that part made me really nervous - I... you know, I thought they got swallowed up by slime and never got clean again, or something..."

"Uh-huh," Isla nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"But I found clips of the games online when I was near the end of primary school, and... I don't know, I was still kind of scared but I went in and watched them..."

"And?" Isla prompted.

He breathed out, eyes flitting around the room as he tried to think of an explanation. "I'm not sure - I kind of got the idea of it, then. Something like... I was still nervous but they were so excited about getting covered in this stuff? Especially when it was the girls..."

"Of course," she grinned.

"Heh, I mean..." Nyte laughed. "They reacted more, you know?" He struggled to continue as she kept her smile. "So, when they were nervous, I started thinking about... being put in there with them. So they'd have someone to hug, or something, as they got... as it came down..."

"Very gentlemanly," she said, clearly amused but seeming to accept his explanation.

He nodded, paused, then a particular memory came to his mind. "There was this one with a white dragon girl - about... maybe a couple of years younger than us, now?" he said. "She..."

"Oh, I've seen that clip!" Isla smiled, leaning forward and pointing at him. "With the blue hair, wearing the black top with the white pawprints on her bazungas? I thought that was kind of sexy for kids' TV..."

Nyte shrank back a little at her enthusiasm, biting his lip embarrassedly. "Yeah..." he laughed nervously - the sleeveless T-shirt the dragoness had been wearing had been a detail he'd paid a lot of attention to. "But she was so... you know, cute and nervous but she loved it in the end..."

"Heh, yep," the reptilian opposite him nodded. "So that was how you got into it... you like the lizards, don't you?"

"Of... course," Nyte finished meekly, then managed a smile. He looked across at Isla again, happily surprised that he had managed to struggle through an explanation of something that had been so private. The lizardess opposite him seemed so casual, like it hadn't been a big deal to admit it at all.

"You finished?" she nodded down at the table in front of him, making him come round from his thoughts.

"Yeah," Nyte said as he looked at the scraps still at the side of his plate, and put his fork and knife down on top of them. It hadn't been a large portion, but his stomach was still churning a little at the thought of what might be happening once they got to their room.

"What did you think?" she asked.

"It was nice," he nodded. "Definitely not something I'd tried before..." His eyes flicked to the side as he saw their waiter approaching from behind Isla again, and craned his neck up as the tall white avian stood over them.

"All ready?" he asked, getting nods from both of them before continuing. "Can I interest you in anything from our dessert menu, the cheese board, coffee...?"

Nyte looked across to Isla, who shook her head. "Er, no, not tonight. Thanks," he added.

"Then thank you for dining with us this evening..."

Nyte looked on, trying not to look awkward as the gull gathered up the plates in front of them. After stacking them up he lifted them with one hand, and then drew a black booklet out of his pocket that was made of the same embossed faux leather that had been on the menus.

"Whenever you're ready," he nodded, leaving it half-open standing up on the table as he turned away.

"I'll get this..." Nyte said quickly as he leaned forward to take it. He opened the book and glanced down at the bottom line of the printed slip inside, stifling a slight wince - it was definitely a little more than his weekly meal pass at the university. He wriggled around to take his wallet out again and tucked a card into the pocket on top of it, then returned it to the standing position it had been in.

"Well, thank you for treating me," Isla smiled, leaning forward to reposition the booklet so that it was lying flat and half off the edge of the table.

"Oh, the treat's all mine. I mean..." He gestured in front of him, as if trying to physically grasp at words. "It's... great to talk in real life again," he struggled.

As he finished, the gull approached them again and swiftly picked up the booklet on his way past. Nyte watched as he turned to the nearby waiter's station, then turned back around again almost immediately, tucking a receipt into the top of the booklet.

"Here you are. Please enjoy the rest of your evening," he smiled down at them, then headed off towards another table.

Nyte took the book again and opened it up, replacing the card in his wallet, then took up the pen that was clipped to the top of the booklet. "Er, what should I tip?" he whispered as he glanced up at Isla.

"It doesn't matter, service gets included here," she said. "Depends on how nice you're feeling!"

He looked down at the bill again and scribbled a small extra amount down, signed it and closed the book, glad he'd got over the unfamiliar ritual. He gripped the edge of the table and looked across at Isla.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah - you want to have some alone time?" A smile spread on her face, making Nyte's heart turn a somersault. He tried to calm himself and stay outwardly cool as he imagined taking the red dress off her.

He looked down at the table again and grasped the card keys on the side plate, sliding them into the pocket of his shirt. The two of them got up from the table, and Nyte reached to take Isla's hand as she stretched it towards him. The two of them walked side by side back through the archway and into the short entrance hallway, this time heading towards the desk in the foyer.

"Which room are we in?" she asked, her voice cutting clearly through the quiet of the large room.

"Oh, I... can't remember," Nyte realized, glancing down at the card keys he was holding. "It doesn't say..."

"No worries, I'll ask," she replied, and turned to step over to the desk. Nyte half-turned away, watching the ornate water feature in the middle of the room as she gave her name.

"Let's see, you're down under room number..." The fox behind the desk looked down at his monitor, drawing the last word out as he skimmed down the list displayed on it. "105 - one king size bed?"

"Yep." Isla glanced to Nyte, grinning as she detected his twitch, then she turned back to the fox behind the desk. "And can we get some extra towels?"

"Certainly. I'll get them sent over..." He glanced down at his computer again. "Actually, you're right next to the spa - if you'd like, you can take them from the entrance."

"Awesome. Thanks!" Isla straightened up and turned away, heading in the direction he had pointed. Nyte raised a finger to his forelock in a gesture of thanks, then realized what he was doing halfway through and tried to turn it into a tired rub of his forehead instead before hurrying after the blue lizardess.

"Extra towels?" he asked, catching up with her as they rounded a corner into a more subtly lit corridor, a sign indicating it led to the few rooms on the ground floor.

"Just a little something I've got planned for us. I think you're going to enjoy it..." Isla smirked, her eyes glistening brightly in the low light as she flicked them from side to side, counting off the rooms. Nyte tried to return her smile despite his nerves as he pointed to the plaque with their room number on it.

Isla crossed to the other side of the corridor, pushing open the frosted glass door that led into the spa area and ducking inside while he fished one of the card keys out of his pocket and fumbled with it, turning it over and trying to find the right way to fit it into the door. As Isla straightened up again, he finally heard the lock click open, and pushed the handle down to step inside.

His eyes widened again as he got his first look at the room - their bags had been laid out at the foot of the bed, a large expanse of crisp peach-colored blankets with an inviting pile of pillows at the head and a blue floral-patterned runner draped across the foot end. Next to it were two tables, each adorned with a lamp with obsidian bases carved into the shape of nude figures. A dresser stood opposite the bed with a large flatscreen television on the top, and at the back of the room, a desk, armchair and potted plant stood in front of the floor to ceiling window.

"Wow, nice!" Isla said approvingly as she squeezed into the room around Nyte, a cluster of rolled-up towels under her arm. She strode over to the huge bed and dropped them on to it before ducking to grab something from her suitcase. "I'm going to freshen up," she declared as she moved to the opposite side of the room, and Nyte turned around just to see her disappearing into the bathroom. He was about to turn away when she poked her head out the door.

"Why don't you spread those towels out and... get comfortable?" She grinned and blew him a kiss before shutting the door, leaving Nyte alone in the room as the sound of running water started up.

Nyte looked over at the bed and exhaled, doing his best to ignore his pounding heart as he stepped over and took hold of one of the towels to shake it out. He pushed the pillows off into the corner of the room, then picked the blue runner off the bottom of the bed, silently wondering what purpose it served as he threw it over to join them. He worked his way from the bottom of the bed to the top, overlapping the white towels carefully as his mind raced to imagine what Isla was planning for them.

Trying to distract himself, he drifted around the room, picking up the bound hotel information book as he passed the desk and flicking through it. At the back, the channels available on the entertainment center were listed, and he recognized the name of a music station. Fumbling with the remote from the desk, he turned it on and flopped down into the nearby armchair, then closed his eyes, trying to calm the beating of his heart as he listened to the gentle flow of the synthesized music.

After a few minutes, he jumped as the bathroom lock clicked, and Isla emerged wearing a white bathrobe tied loosely at her waist. She was carrying a couple of plastic bottles, which she tossed over on to the bed.

"Nice job," she said, looking towards the towel-covered bed as she approached him. "But when I said 'get comfortable', I meant more like this..."

She stopped as she stood in front of him, staring down with a sly grin, and Nyte gripped the arms of the chair as she hooked her thumb into the cord of the dressing gown. Slowly, she pulled it forward, the fabric sliding smoothly through the knot before the two ends fell open. Nyte's eyes widened and his gaze followed her hands as she moved them up to her shoulders, flicking the dressing gown off them, and in one smooth movement she let it drop to the floor.

Nyte stuttered as Isla stared calmly back at him, his heart beating in his ears as his gaze slowly dropped from her face. Her skin was a beautiful deep blue, with very slightly lighter tanlines crossing her shoulders. He followed them down to where they widened on her full round breasts, which had tiny mottled markings surrounding her dark purple nipples. His eyes roamed downwards over her pleasingly rounded tummy, noticing the wide curve of her hips, and the fur on the back of his neck tingled as he stared at the cleft between her legs and the small bump of skin nestled in its tip.

"What's the matter - never seen a girl's notch before?" she spoke up with a smirk as she watched him stare. She put her hands on her bottom and pushed her hips forward a little as he stared speechlessly, and a grin grew on her face as she watched him trying to find words. "Look at that face! I can tell you're a guy who loves 'em smooth..."

"Wh..." Nyte spluttered as she stepped back. 

"C'mon, Nyte... let's have some fun," she smiled as she leaned down to pull him up from the chair, and Nyte whimpered as her breasts hung right in front of his eyes for a moment. He winced as he hauled himself up, trying to readjust his underwear with one hand as Isla turned around and took him by the wrist, and with his mind racing, he stared down at her large curvaceous bottom as she led him over to the bed.

Nyte watched, stunned, as the naked lizard girl hopped up on to the towels he'd laid out on the bed, and he pawed at his chest wildly as she stretched over to press one of the bottles against his front. Finally getting a grip on it, he looked down at the container of glutinous translucent liquid as she lay down on her front, her head resting on her folded arms in front of her.

"'Ultraglide - all slick, no stick...'" he read out from the label dazedly as he turned the bottle over. He looked up from it to see the lizardess looking back at him with a glint in her green eyes, her tail swishing lazily in the air.

"Where do you want to start? I'm all yours..." she purred.

Nyte swallowed and stepped forward, trying to fight down his overwhelmed libido and keep his face calm as he approached her. He looked Isla up and down, drawing his gaze slowly over her voluptuous nude bottom and up her back. The curve of her breast was just visible pressed against the bed, and her head was resting on her arms, her face turned towards him as she smiled expectantly. He breathed out and started fumbling with the lid of the bottle, realizing his hands were shaking. Isla looked up at the noise, noticing his hesitance for the first time.

"Hey, are you okay?" she said, her seductive smile replaced with a concerned look as she moved herself around to sit up. Her hands went up to his shoulders, grasping them gently as she looked him in the eye.

"Yeah, I..." Nyte stuttered. "You're beautiful, I'm just... could we slow it down...?" He cringed as the words escaped his mouth, knowing it was the wrong thing to say even before she had reacted.

"Oh..." Isla slid her hands away from his shoulders and shrank back, tracing her fingers down his chest, her seductive act broken. She stuttered, her sentences jumbling into one another. "I'm sorry. Most boys are... I went too fast, I thought... you know, we don't have to do anything you don't want to..."

"No! No, I... really, really do," Nyte replied, shaking his head and picking at the fabric of his jeans to alleviate the pressure in his underwear as his gaze continued to roam over the naked lizardess. He turned around to sit next to her on the bed. Slowly, he moved his arm around her back, hovering his hand over her side before touching it lightly against her. The realization he was touching her bare hip sent electric shivers along his arm, which intensified as Isla leaned against his shoulder.

He felt her take a deep breath and then let it out. "Did I come on too strong?" she asked without looking at him. "I guess I thought you..."

"No, it's okay," Nyte interrupted her, shaking his head. "It's just... I'm nervous, you know? I've never..." He hesitated, and thought desperately about his word choice, frustratedly glancing over at the television as the gentle music continued to play obliviously. He forced himself to speak. "I've never been... alone with the hottest lizard girl ever before..."

"Heh..." Isla's shoulders shook in a laugh, and he smiled himself, unsure if it was the reaction that he had wanted. But the tension in his stomach relaxed a little as she straightened and looked at him with a slight smile again. "Kind of... overwhelmed?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, that just about describes it..." he said carefully. His heart was still pounding as his brain raced at the sensation of touching her smooth skin, and he experimentally slid his hand gradually up her side. She wriggled a little as he stroked up and down.

"Then let's go slow," she agreed. "First... how about we even things up and get you out of your clothes too?"

A blissful smile spread across his face at the suggestion. "Yeah... I'd love that."

Without another word, Isla moved her hands up to his shoulders, and he quickly closed his eyes and pursed his lips as she kissed him. His fur tingled as their lips met, putting his other hand gently on to her tummy in a sideways hug, and tried to react as she planted multiple slow kisses on his mouth. His lips curled into a smile against hers as he felt her hands at the top button of his shirt, and continued to hold her gently as she pulled back to look, working her way down his front.

"Oh, you've got such a cute stripe!" she exclaimed as her hands went to his shoulders, pushing the shirt off him and down his arms. She reached to the few inch wide lighter grey band of fur that ran down from his neck, stroking her fingers gently through it all the way down his chest and tummy.

"Er, cute?" he said guardedly, his fur bristling at her touch as he wriggled his arms out of the shirt the rest of the way. Looking around for somewhere to put it, he tossed it across to drape untidily across the back of the armchair.

"What, you don't like cute? What do you want me to say - 'badass'?" she grinned. 

"No, cute is... good...!" His sentence was cut off as the lizardess leaned in to kiss him again, and he smiled just before their lips came together. This time, his heart leapt as she pushed her tongue a little into his mouth, and he responded by pushing his forward as well, rolling them around each other for a moment before she withdrew. Before long, he smiled again as he felt her hands picking at the front of his jeans.

"Want me to help?" he grinned. The lizardess stayed silent for a few moments in concentration, still fiddling with the clasp, then let go.

"Pff... yeah, go on," she said, gesturing at his front buckle. "These things are always impossible..."

Nyte grinned, and reached around to his back to undo the strap over his tail first, feeling a thrill as the movement left his bare top so exposed to Isla. He deftly unhooked it, then did the same to the front with one hand.

"Show-off..." she grinned as she looked down at the undone buckle. "You're just lucky I took my own bra off..."

"Heh..." he answered, his senses still too concentrated on his pounding heart and the crush in his boxers to form a coherent response. He shifted up a little as Isla's hands came forward again, tugging the jeans off his hips, and he sat down and wriggled them down his legs.

"You're amazing..." he stuttered in a whisper as his eyes roamed over her again, his near nudity seeming completely comfortable in front of the beautiful lizardess. She smiled, then shuffled herself closer to him as she put her arm around his back, drawing closer to whisper into his ear.

"I've... since you're all nervous, I've got something I was kind of embarrassed to ask too..." she said.

"Yeah?" he prompted her, kicking his jeans the rest of the way off his feet. "It's okay! Don't be shy..."

She smiled faintly, and giggled, looking at her feet - a world away from the confident seductress that Nyte had had in front of him just a few minutes before. She took a breath and let it out, then leaned around to take the bottle from where they'd left it.

"Would it be weird if you... quizzed me?" she asked, looking up at him with an awkward smile as she pressed the bottle of lube into his hand, clasping her own hands around it.

Nyte looked from her unsure face down to the bottle of glutinous liquid he was now grasping, and a slow wave of excitement spread through him as he realized what she was asking him to do.

"Sure. I mean... yeah, I can do that!" he stammered, wrenching his eyes up over her chest to look back at her face. She grinned and exhaled, then wriggled excitedly as Nyte forced his trembling hand to unscrew the cap from the bottle and tear off the foil seal. With a glance down at her feet, she leaned over to take one of the towels off the foot of the bed and dropped it to the floor, using her toes to spread it out beneath her.

"O... okay, Isla," he stammered as he looked the naked lizardess up and down, then cleared his throat and pulled himself together, trying to sound suave as he held the open bottle upright above Isla's head. "I'm going to ask you some questions, and if you answer wrongly, then you're going to get very slippery..." He tilted the bottle over a little, accidentally letting a bead of the stuff inside spill out. It drizzled down on to her head, slipping down her back, and he twitched as the lizard girl hunched her shoulders and let out an excited giggle.

"And if I'm right?" she asked, feeling around for the drop slipping down the back of her head.

"Then..." Nyte looked around, then down at his underwear. "I'll strip," he said, almost catching himself before he said it. He grimaced at the silence, and then sagged with relief as the lizard girl nodded in approval, quickly composing himself. "You'll need three correct answers to get everything off..."

"Sounds good!" Isla rocked back and forth a little, flexing her hands and then clasping them between her thighs.

"Okay." Nyte nodded, then breathed out slowly, hesitating as he tried to think of something to ask.

"What was... um. No..." He tried to think of the kinds of questions they'd faced when they had been on Industrial Zone, and twitched as he pictured her once again in one of the show's slime machines. "Oh - what's my favourite game on IZ?" he asked.

"The Hotseat," she answered immediately with a grin.

"That's right..." Nyte glanced down at his foot and retracted the bottle as he brought his leg up and hunched over to pull his left sock off. He tossed it aside and watched Isla's face as he hovered the lube bottle over her head again.

"So let's give you a harder one..." He paused as he thought, running through their dinner converation again in his head. "Who were the two presenters of the long-running Saturday morning show 'Massive'?" he asked.

"Oh...!" Isla squirmed, lifting her hands from the edges of the bed and drumming her fingers to the sides of her head as she closed her eyes.

"I'll accept just the first names..." he encouraged, unable to prevent a smile from spreading across his face as he watched her grin nervously. He was about to speak again when her eyes snapped open and she pointed a finger at him.

"Shane and Andie!" she almost shouted, her face in an enthused smile.

"Heh... yes, you got there just in time," Nyte replied, and manoeuvred his foot over to hook into the top of his other sock, dragging it down the way and stepping out of it. His heart sped up as he realized he needed to come up with a question she couldn't answer.

"Uh..." He tapped his free hand against his thigh as he thought, and felt his phone in his pocket. "What's... what's the name of the song you listened to at dinner?"

"Trick question!" the lizardess said back triumphantly. "It doesn't have a name."

"Wrong," he shook his head, and twitched as Isla gasped in surprise, nearly began to speak and then hunched over and closed her eyes with an excited whimper. He looked at the bottle in his outstretched hand, swallowed and then upended it over her head.

The clear slippery liquid made a thick glooping noise as an air bubble rose to the top of the bottle, and the lizardess yipped as the lube splurged on to her head. It ballooned outwards in a dome shape for a second before settling to pour down the back of her neck, and Isla squeaked and hunched her shoulders as it began to crawl down her back in slippery fingers. Feeling his fur standing on end as he watched the gloop slithering down and parting around her tail, Nyte's hand twitched forward, and he gasped as a wave of lube splashed over Isla's face and dripped from her chin on to her breasts and tummy.

Mesmerized by the gooey lizardess in front of him, Nyte suddenly looked up at the level of lube in the bottle, and quickly lifted it away, about a quarter of the slippery liquid still inside. He set the bottle down on the bedside table and stepped back, wiping the stuff off his thumb and forefinger on his boxers as he stared at the slimy lizardess in front of him.

Isla let a giggling whimper through her tightly closed mouth, then raised her hands from between her legs to her closed eyes, wiping away the stuff with her index fingers.

"You... you said you hadn't named it earlier!" she protested, her speech muffled as she dragged one hand across her lips, tilting her head down to stop the dripping lube from running into her mouth.

"Heh, it's..." Nyte paused and stepped back, watching the gooey stuff continue to slither slowly down the gorgeous lizardess's skin. She opened her eyes again and grinned, drumming her feet on the towels on the ground. "It's actually called... 'Deep Blue'..." he said as he stared back at her with an embarrassed smile, his hand vaguely indicating her body.

"God, you... lovable sap." She laughed, raising her arms to her sides and then twitched again, the movement sending new slimy drips slithering off her arms. Nyte winced as well, feeling his length throbbing under the confines of his underwear. He stepped forward, but hesitated as Isla held up a dripping hand to stop him.

"Come on!" she grinned. "We're not done yet... I need to get those off you!"

"Nnnrgh..." His ears flattened as she pointed at his boxers, but he nodded. "Okay, one more question - either you win or you get the rest of the slime..." He grabbed the bottle and paused, looking around him for inspiration, but he couldn't get his mind off one thing.

He looked down at his boxers, swallowing as he realized how huge and obvious the tent in them was. "What color am I?" he asked, one finger of his free hand pointing down at them.

"What, under there?" Isla drew her legs in and crossed them as she stared at him, then tilted her head, the clear goo dripping in strings from her chin. He squirmed, curling his toes, as her eyes flitted up and down him, watching her tap her slippery fingers on one knee before she answered.

"Stony gray - the same as the insides of your ears."

"Tch..." Nyte twitched, but nodded silently as the lizardess clapped her hands in triumph.

"Get 'em off!" With a grin, Isla pointed down at his underwear, then emphatically towards the floor.

Nyte looked down at his last remaining piece of clothing, scratching behind his ear as he attempted to swallow his nerves. Trying his best to appear casual, he moved his hands to the band of his boxers and leaned forward as he wriggled them down, cupping his length with one hand to protect it as he pulled the band out and away from it. He looked down to the floor as he let go of himself, aware of it springing back into position as he raised his feet to step out of his underwear. He took a deep breath and stood upright, avoiding meeting Isla's gaze by turning around and spreading his boxers over the back of the armchair with the rest of his clothing, then slowly turned back to face her, catching the lizardess looking down at him with her eyes wide.

"What?" he asked worriedly, trying to smile through his nerves as he stood up again, his eyes flicking around the room.

"Oh, nothing..." Isla's shoulders shook in nervous laughter, still staring at his elongated length. "Wow. Just... if that's going inside me, it's good you got me really slippery..."

She half-closed her eyes and put her hand on her lube-soaked tummy, moving her outstretched fingers slowly down her slick skin, leaving small furrows behind in the clear slippy stuff before they closed again. She stopped as she reached the tip of her cleft, and Nyte gasped, his eyes fixed on her and his length pulsing as a glistening bead of the stuff slipped slowly across the lips of her entrance.

"Oh... Isla!" Finally losing control of himself, Nyte stepped forward between Isla's legs and planted a firm kiss on her lips, taking her by the shoulders and pushing her down on to the bed. Isla squeaked through her giggle as he pawed at her breasts, eventually letting herself fall backwards and embracing him as he collapsed on top of her, their heads moving back and forth with their lips locked together.

Nyte's fur stood on end as Isla's slippery fingers brushed against it, then she grasped his sides firmly, the two of them panting and whimpering between kisses. Nyte grinned hungrily down at the reptilian beneath him as he reared up, his heart thumping as he slid his throbbing penis down between Isla's legs, then wriggled his hips as a rush of excitement came over him.

"Hey, slow down, eager-boy - you're miles away!" Nyte's ears flattened as Isla giggled up at him, but they perked again with the fur on his neck standing up as he watched the lizardess squirm her hand down between his fur and her skin, arching her back to shift her hips up. His eyes widened as he felt her fingertips gently pushing his length downwards, and she and Nyte both gasped as its tip slid against her soaked and slippery lips.

Nyte pulled himself up, looking into the lizardess's eyes as she nodded slowly, and tensed himself as he wriggled, trying to adjust himself into position as Isla stretched up to give him a kiss on the chin. Trembling, he pushed himself forward, and his heart skipped as he realized he was inside - he tensed up as a soft, warm, inviting feeling slowly enveloped the head of his penis, spreading down its shaft as he began to slide gently into her.

He hesitated as Isla squeaked, keeping his face close to hers as she flicked her eyes up, biting her lip as she wriggled her hips and drew her legs up next to him.

"You okay?" Nyte trembled as he felt instinct beginning to take over, trying to resist the urge to push further into her before she responded.

"Oh, yeah," Isla said breathlessly, nodding her head. He began to wriggle forwards again, but stopped as she put both hands on his shoulders, keeping him back.

"Could I go on top?" she asked.

"Yeah... I..." Nyte stuttered down at her, then yelped out loud as she wriggled herself up and off him. Panting, he glanced down at his slippery length, overwhelmed by the thought it had been inside her, then looked up as Isla shifted herself around to lie lengthways on the bed, her head propped up on her arm. She beckoned to him with a finger, and he eagerly crawled forwards to lie beside her on the slightly damp towels. He reached forward and felt a tingle as he put his hand on her slippery hip.

"Sometimes it's just nice to be in control..." she whispered, coming in for another kiss and putting her hand on the back of Nyte's head as she flicked her tongue into his mouth. As he closed his eyes and pressed his mouth against hers, he felt her slowly slithering her leg over him and she wriggled upwards, tilting him so that she was straddling his lap as he lay on his back.

She held the kiss for a few more seconds, then pulled away, propping herself up on her arms. Nyte whimpered, letting a blissful smile spread across his face, then opened his eyes again to see her staring down at him.

"What?" she asked.

"It's just... I've had dreams like this," he panted, shaking his head as he took in the image of the beautiful lizardess's face above him.

"Me too," she answered.

She smiled down at him for a moment before she pulled herself up to sit back on her knees. Nyte eeped as she grasped the base of his shaft just in front of her, pulling it so that it stood upright. He wriggled up on to his elbows, watching with wide eyes as she stretched across to the bedside table to grab the lube bottle, then hovered it upside down above the head of his penis, her thumb poised to flick the cap open.

"Now here's your question," she said with a mischievous grin. "Who's got the biggest cock ever?"

Nyte hesitated, looking from her smile to his pulsing member in her hand. He opened his mouth and stuttered before answering. "M... me...?"

"Wrong!" Isla squeezed the bottle and Nyte yelped as a downpour of lube spewed out of it, suddenly feeling the cold slippery stuff as it splashed in a small dome over the head of his penis before settling to slide down it in thick waves. Isla aimed the stream of lube around in a small circle, coating his length entirely in the stuff before throwing the empty bottle aside and crawling up to kneel on all fours on top of him.

"But I think you must be pretty close..." she said, reaching down underneath her, and he gasped as he felt her lifting his penis to guide it to her soaking lips. His breathing grew short and quick as he felt her warmth surrounding him again, staring down at her large hanging breasts as she slowly sat upright, wiggling her hips to take him inside her.

Isla looked down between her legs as she settled on to his length, parting her knees a little further as she slowly lowered herself down. He twitched, wriggling his hips up before she put a hand on his chest to stop him, and tremblingly did his best to keep still, finally feeling the head of his penis nestle into place inside her as she seated herself on his lap.

"...Wow," Isla whistled, and she cocked her head to the side as she looked down at him, taking a breath before she began to gently move herself up and down. "Haven't any other girls said anything?"

Nyte twitched and whimpered as the naked lizardess rolled her hips slightly back, looking her deep blue curves up and down as his shaft rubbed up against the soft walls of her entrance. "I..." He swallowed, fumbling for words as he watched her nipples bounce gently with her movement. "No, you're my... first," he said with a weak smile.

"Seriously?" Isla's mouth fell open, and she almost stopped moving before a gentle involuntary thrust from Nyte encouraged her. "I thought a guy like you would be taking girls home from the club every night..."

"Heh... yeah, I... did, sometimes..." Nyte nodded, twitching as every movement from Isla caused a new tingling sensation along his length. "But we... never went all the way..."

"God. You're a gentleman..." Isla shook her head. "Then I guess I've got to make this pretty special!"

"Oh, you are..." Nyte started, then trailed off as she stretched her arms slowly into the air, the movement pulling her breasts upward as she clasped her hands behind her head. She leaned forward and swayed her upper body slightly, making them swing in front of his eyes.

"C'mon, pussy, what are you waiting for?" she whispered, unclasping her hands and pointing with both hands at her nipples. Tentatively, Nyte took his shaking hands off her thighs and reached up to push his palms against her swaying breasts, his heart thumping in his ears as he squeezed them gently. They were like nothing he'd felt before, smooth and soft but firm underneath his fingers with her nipples hard against his palms. Staring down into his eyes, she nodded and smiled, clasping her own hands on top of his and encouraging him to grasp a little harder.

"My god..." he whispered to himself.

"What?" she asked again, dropping her hands as he slid his palms gently around, fascinatedly exploring the curve of her breasts.

"You've..." He searched his racing mind for words, shaking his head as he stared up at her chest. "You've got... awesome tits," he finished, a slightly embarrassed smile crossing his face as he listened to the words escape his mouth.

"Don't I?" Isla smirked. "But how do you know, this is the first pair you've got your hands on..."

"Oh, I... know when I see them..." He winced as he held on, hefting them up and together and feeling their weight. He shuddered as Isla circled her hips on top of him, giving out pleasurable gasps and squeaks as her clitoris rubbed against the coarse fur on his groin.

The two of them moved slowly together in rhythm for a few minutes, the warm synthesized music continuing to play from the television and being punctuated by the gentle squeaking of the bedsprings underneath them. Nyte smiled as he moved his hands all over Isla, staying still as he let her ride him and calmly enjoying the feeling of her smooth and slippery legs, hips, tummy and breasts as he smiled at the gentle tugging and rubbing on his length. He wriggled a little to try and thrust his hips upwards, and Isla finally spoke again.

"You okay down there?" she smiled, wiping a bead of lube off her neck and wriggling roughly against him. "You're lasting ages, for a virgin..."

"Sorry, I'm... I'm fine. I mean, I'm great..." Nyte fumbled with his words as he tried to respond. He gasped as Isla leaned forward and brought her hands up to push her breasts together, feeling over and around them as she pushed them closer to his face. Panting as he watched them bounce in front of his eyes, he traced his hands up and down her slippery sides. "It's just... kind of different, you know?"

"Different?" Isla repeated back to him, slowing and grinding down on to him again.

"Yeah..." He hesitated, afraid of saying the wrong thing. "From, uh... using my hands. It kind of... rubs differently." He tore his gaze off her voluptuous blue breasts and looked up to her face with a weak smile.

"Hmm," she said. Suddenly, she wriggled herself up and he felt a sudden cold on his length as she slipped off him.

"No, don't..." He brought his hands up to try to push her back down, but her lube-soaked hips slithered out of his grasp as she slipped off him and swung her leg over as she shifted to the other side of the bed.

"Here - some guys like this better..."

Still feeling the chill on his soaked penis, Nyte blinked and propped himself up on one elbow as the lizardess knelt on the dry towels, wriggling her knees slightly apart as she leaned forwards to grip the headboard in front of her.

"Get up!" she ordered, and he scrabbled to sit upright, eyes widening as she raised one hand in the air and slapped herself on the backside. "You're coming in from behind..."

Nyte swallowed and dazedly crawled forwards to clamber between her legs, his fur standing on end as she brushed her tail gently against his neck. "How do we, uh..."

"I'll guide you." Isla watched over her shoulder as he positioned himself unsurely in an upright kneeling position, looking down at his own solid length and then to her backside. He smiled weakly as he put his hands on her hips, seeing a glint in her eye as she looked back at him.

"Come on, where are you?" she asked, swaying her bottom back and forth. Nyte twitched back, trying to subtly hunch down and steal a look at where he was aiming.

"I'm just trying to... find the right place," he said quickly, returning to the position he'd been in and reaching down to adjust himself as he tried to push his hips down.

"Hey, any place down there's fun," she said over her shoulder. She shook her bottom a little again, and he shuddered as he shuffled his knees a little forward. As his penis touched her skin, she dipped forwards and moved a little lower, and he smiled as he felt her line her entrance up with him. Gently, he pushed his hips forward, sliding back into her easily as she wriggled her knees further apart.

"Oh...!" He gasped as Isla arched her back, pressing her backside against him as he felt his length glide into place, and he whimpered incoherently as she circled her hips, her entrance rubbing much more intensely now around the head of his shaft. Swallowing, he kept his hips pressed forward and concentrated on keeping his balance on his knees, looking down at Isla's curvaceous bottom and bringing his hands around to squeeze it. As she moaned appreciatively, he slipped his hands down to grasp her hips and thrust forwards, ears pricking then flattening as the headboard slammed into the wall.

"Keep going!" Isla said quickly, pushing her fingers over the top of the board to fill the gap and ducking her head down as he pushed his hips forwards again. This time, he felt himself rapidly tipping towards orgasm, the feeling intensifying as the lizardess's gasps got louder underneath him. He looked down at her bottom as she circled it rapidly around his length, pushing him over the brink. As the tingle began building at the base of his penis, his fingers slithered against her slimy skin, and he squeezed his eyes closed, the image of the gorgeous lizardess covered in gunge coming back into his head. Whimpering involuntarily, he thrust hard as the tingle exploded into a wave, his hands grasping her backside as he felt his pulsing length gushing uncontrollably into her.

He bit his lower lip and hissed as the orgasm shuddered through him, arching his back and balling his fists under Isla's hips to attempt to hang on to her slippery skin. Nestled against the walls of her entrance, his entire length pulsed in a way that he'd never felt before. Feeling a second wave rush out of him, he groaned and pressed forward against her, rocking from side to side and becoming even more aware of the sensation of his fur nestling against her smooth legs and bottom as the intensity of climax gradually faded. Panting breathlessly, he half-opened his eyes, blinking as he saw sparks dancing across his vision, and blearily looked down at Isla who was looking back over her shoulder with a smile, still gently swaying her hips around him.

His hips instinctively bucked against her again, and he smiled as the lizardess underneath him let out a squeak. Pulling on the headboard, she wriggled slowly away from him, and Nyte's hands slid off her as she moved forward. He looked down as his length emerged from the lips of her vulva, dripping as it slipped out, and he fell back to kneel down, one hand brushing the tousled hair out of his face as he watched Isla turn herself around and lean back on her elbows.

"So... how was your first time?" she asked as she faced him with a grin.

"Oh, my... god, Isla..." Nyte panted, his head still spinning, and flopped forward to lie down next to her as she shuffled over a few inches. His eyes roamed down to her chest again, watching her breasts jiggle as she moved aside on her back. Lying on his side, he reached up to put his hand on one of them, and she smiled and kissed his wrist as his palm stroked the curve of her skin.

"My god..." he repeated, his chest rising and falling heavily as he tried to get his breath back. He closed his eyes and saw stars shooting across his vision, the high of having sex with the beautiful lizardess slowly draining and being replaced with a contented tiredness.

"Pretty good, huh?" her voice came, and he looked up to see her smiling at him. She reached her hand over and scruffed his hair as he nodded, and he shuffled himself over to cuddle closer to her as she snaked her arm around his back. They lay in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes before Nyte spoke up again.

"Isla?"

"Yeah?" She reached down as he slid his thumb up to her nipple, and picked it away, but encouraged him to keep stroking her breast with a hand on top of his.

"When... do we get to do this again?"

"In half an hour if you're up for it, tomcat," she smirked.

"No, I mean..." He gave a weak laugh and cleared his throat, gathering the strength to lean up on his arm and look into her eyes. "Just... seeing each other. You know, with us away so long..."

The lizardess exhaled, her face getting more serious as she thought how to respond, and she looked away, staring at the ceiling. "Yeah..." she started. "It's not exactly a weekend trip..." He nodded, his hug getting a little tighter as he realized how long it might be until they got the opportunity to spend a night together again.

"Well, here's the question." Isla turned to look him in the eye. "Do you want this to be a... hookup? Or something more?"

Nyte paused, considering the question. "I... don't know..." he started, then changed his mind. "I mean... yes! I haven't ever felt like this about..." He stopped himself as he felt a cliche coming. "You know. You're... special," he finished inelegantly.

"You want me to be your girlfriend?"

He nodded slowly, and spoke as he got more certain. "Yeah," he said. "That would be... amazing."

She smiled happily, turning to face him, and brought her hand up to stroke his face. "Well, I think I'd love to have a boyfriend like you as well..."

He grinned as his heart leapt, closing his eyes and letting himself get lost in the feeling of her skin brushing his cheek.

"So, what do you think of long distance relationships?" Isla continued after a few moments, and he sank a little as her question brought him back down to earth.

"I, um. I'd never really thought about them," he said. "Er. That's what it's going to have to be, isn't it?"

"Afraid so." Isla nodded. "I mean, one of us could move colleges or something if we decide it's really serious, but..." She shook her head. "That's too far ahead. Do you think we can make it work?"

"Yeah!" Nyte replied quickly. "You know... it won't be that long between seeing each other - when you think about it, it's only a few hundred miles." He reached for her again, his hand finding the pleasing curve of her tummy. "We can use FaceComm and everything to talk, it'll be almost like being together," he continued, brightening up as he began to convince himself. "You can get it on your phone and everything - we must have it easier than people did in the past."

"Yep, that's right," Isla said. "But there's one big thing about going long-distance - will you be able to go months without using this?"

He squeaked at the ticklish feeling as she walked her fingers over his thigh, smiling at his reaction as she stroked two of them up and down the top side of his penis. He looked down at her hand.

"Yeah... I think I can survive." He smiled. "I mean, it's not like I'll have to give up all the sex with other girls I wasn't having..."

"Oh, girls know confidence. You'll have to fight them off now you're... experienced," Isla grinned.

"Heh..." He smiled again weakly and nodded, his mind once again racing as he recalled the new images and sensations of having sex. His eyes dropped again as Isla shifted herself so she was lying on her side, and he stroked his hand up and down the curve of her hip.

"Will we, uh... have time to do that again tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we don't have to get out until eleven. I'm gonna ride you as long as you can last," she smirked.

"Heh..." He grinned widely, relaxing back into the pillow again.

"And after that, as soon as we both get back, we'll start looking at when we can meet up again - how's that sound?"

"Yeah," Nyte nodded, his ears perking at her words despite his tiredness and distraction as he looked at her. "We... we can do it - let's make this work."

She smiled in response. "We can. But we're here now... shall we enjoy it while we can?"

"Yeah... let's." Nyte smiled, and leaned forward to kiss her. She closed her eyes as their lips met, and he felt her smile as he wriggled his face against hers. Eventually she backed away, swinging her legs off the side of the bed and then budging herself off to stand.

"Gawd. Look at me..." she said with a giggle as she caught sight of herself in the large mirror of the closet door, then spread her arms and looked down at her front. Nyte didn't need any prompting - he felt his length stir again despite the orgasm as Isla slowly turned around, the translucent lube still crawling down all over her nude body. He wrenched his eyes up from between her legs, lingering over her slippery breasts with long strings of the goo dripping off her nipples, to meet her gaze.

"So... I guess you've never showered with a girl before?" she asked.

"Heh... no..." He hauled himself into a sitting position with a smile, trying to wake himself up again, as Isla grabbed one of the towels off the bed and scrubbed at her head and face with it. He scrambled off the edge of the bed and took her outstretched hand as she walked around it, leading him over to the bathroom.

"Then let's give you another first time..."