Waking slowly, Kerr luxuriates in the feeling of the soft, warm sheets. Rolling over on his left side to cuddle up to Miera he is surprised to find only empty bed. Turning the other way and opening his eyes, instead of soft, black fur, he see a smooth, white wall. Huh? Where am I? Where's Miera?
Slowly the memory returns to him: Miera and him returning from a fruitless search late in the fall. She spotting something up a mountainside and insisting they detour to investigate. Finding a large metal... something, larger than the biggest house he had ever seen. The strange door in the side of it that opened by itself when Miera leaned against a panel. The door slamming shut again when he touched a blinking light. The ground shaking, followed by something pushing them both down on the floor. The strange lightness when the pressure disappeared. Seeing a blue-and-green globe slowly shrinking away outside the glass-like window and realising that it was their world. The worry a few days later when Miera's food ran out. Forcing bits of bread, soaked with his own blood, into her an eightday later in the hope that it would sustain her long enough.
Long enough for what? Puzzled, and somewhat worried, the rabbit sits up and takes in his surroundings: a large, white room with the large bed in the middle, a weak, yellowish light coming from openings in the roof and on the wall directly opposite him what must be a door and the largest, clearest mirror he has ever seen.
As he is sitting there the light brightens and the door slowly opens -- not swinging in or out as he expects, but splitting down the middle and the two parts sliding quietly aside -- letting a tall, hooded figure enter.
"Don't be afraid," the unknown figure -- a female he realises -- states as it approaches to stop before the bed.
"W-who are you?" he whispers, "and where am I?"
"I'm a doctor," the female replies quietly, "and you're in my care. Please don't be afraid." "Afraid?" he asks puzzled, as though she is taller than him, she hasn't done any threatening moves and her stance, though odd, looks relaxed, not tense.
"I probably look strange to you," she states, slowly lifting her arms and grabbing the hood with slender, strangely furless fingers.
Oh! For a minute or more, he just stares, slack-jawed at the stranger before him. "Uh... Miss?" he finally mumbles, "a-are you sick?"
"What kind of doctor would I be," she retorts, smilig broadly and showing off pearly white, blunt teeth, "if I couldn't even keep myself healthy?
"B-but..." he mumbles, "your fur? What happened to it?"
"I cut my hair short," she replies, running one of her strange, five-fingered paws over her head, "but other than that, my people doesn't have much hair."
Her people? Puzzled, Kerr makes no attempt to move away as she sit down on the edge of the bed and slowly reach out to touch his left arm.
"How is your arm?" she finally asks. "Try moving it a bit. You had a rather nasty wound and I woyuld like to make certain that it healed properly."
"My arm?" he asks, pulling it out of her grasp, only now realising that she is holding onto it.
"Oops, sorry," she responds, smiling gently, "I didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't," Kerr mumbles, "I... was only a bit surprised."
"Great!" she exclaims. "But where are my manners? I completely forgot to introduce myself; I'm Florence."
"Florence? That's a nice name," he states, "I'm Kerr." A female who doesn't immediately try to jump my bone? That hasn't happened too often since I met Miera. Miera? "Miera!"
"Huh?"
"Where is she?" Kerr almost shouts, looking everywhere, "where is Miera?"
"Who is Miera?"
"She... she..." he begins. Then a horrible thought enters his mind, No! She must be alive! Grasping Florence's left arm and tugging on it he pleads, "Please, I must know!"
"If you're talking about the black-furred female," she begins, lighting a glimmer of hope in him, "we've locked her up where she won't be able to hurt you again."
"H-hurt me?" he asks, shocked, "b-but Miera wouldn't hurt me!" When she looks meaningfully down at his left arm, he exclaims, "She didn't hurt me! I... She... There was no more food for her..."
"Y-you mean?" she gasps, "you cut yourself? To save her? Oh, dearie me..."
"What?"
"I'm afraid that when she woke up yesterday and insisted that you be brought to her, we restrained her."
"Restrained?"
"Tied her to the bed," she replies quietly.
Ouch! If she's been tied down since yesterday... Tossing aside the blanket and getting up, he asks, "Can you take me to her?"
"You may want to put on some clothes first," she responds, quickly turning away, "there's a robe on the chair."
Oops. Must have gotten too used to not wearing clothes after all that time. Locating the robe, he quickly puts it on, only to find that there's no hole for his tail, so doesn't fit too well. "You can turn around again, now." She's a doctor and must have seen me naked, so why did she turn away?
Following the strange female, Kerr walks through he doors and into another room, out the doors on the other side of that and down a long corridor which for some reason seems to curve upwards. What is this place? The walls are so smooth, and the light? Where are the lamps? Why aren't there any windows? "Uh, miss?"
"I'll answer all your questions later," she interrupts him with, "but first we must see to your friend."
"She's not my friend!" Kerr exclaims, "she's my mate!"
Not having a good response, the female quietly leads him to a door just like any other in the corridor and places her palm on a panel beside it.
That panel? It's just like the one on the... whatever it was. But that was old and Miera thought... Can Florence really be... B-but... Kerr's train of though is suddenly interrupted as the doors glide open and the female beckons him to enter. He steps through the opening to find himself in a small room with one wall covered by lights; red lights, blue, green and even a few yellow, some blinking, others shining steadily, but none of them can hold his attention because the wall directly opposite the entrance contains another door and a large window through which he can see a bed -- similar to the one he woke up in, he realises -- and in it he can make out a black-furred head resting on a white pillow. "Miera!" he shouts, startling the other occupant of the small room.
"A moment," Florence states, then walks over and whispers something to a short male with skin the colour of old parchment.
He nods, then places his paw on a panel. Patterns of light dances across the wall for a few seconds, then goes out entirely. "I've disconnected the tubes and diagnostics." Reaching over, he picks a metal disc from a shelf and paws over to Kerr. "Place this on the red panels on her restraints and they'll open," he explains.
Florence steps over and paws open the door, then gestures for him to enter, stating, "We'll let you two have some privacy. If you need me, push the green panel above the bed and I'll be here as soon as I can."
"Thanks," Kerr mumbles, focused on the female in the other room and not really noticing the others quietly leaving the small room. Stepping quietly through the door and walking towards the bed he barely registers that the door slides shut behind him. Reaching the bed he looks down on Miera. Finding her asleep, he reach out with his right paw to caress her tear-streaked face. Not getting a reaction, he leans in and begins to lick off the salty tears.
"Huh?" the pantheress mumbles, opening her eyes and looking straight into Kerr's blue eyes. "Kerr!"
"Missed me?" he whispers, grinning softly.
"A little bit," she admits. Then she tries to put her arms around him, only to find that she's still tied down. "Uh... Could you help me free?"
"Maybe," he responds, a mischievous glint in his eyes, "or maybe I enjoy seeing you trussed up like this."
"Grrr," she mock growls, tossing and pulling at her restraints, "if you try to..."
The rest of the sentence is lost as his right paw slips under the blanket to tickle her side. Licking her muzzle again, his paw moves to gently rub her belly. "I was so afraid that I had lost you," he whispers. Moving down the side of the bed, he lets his paw glide along her shapely leg until he finds the thick band tying her down. He lifts the blanket with his right paw and places the strange metal disc on the glowing, red field. The colour changes to green, there's a soft hum, the band splits down the middle and the two ends disappears into the mattress, leaving no trace that it was ever there.
"Hurry!" Miera exclaims,
"No," he whispers, grabbing her other foot with his right paw and gently stroking the long arch from her heel to her toes. Reaching the leathery pads, he scritches them, making Miera giggle and struggle to get loose.
"Lie still!" he admonishes before catching her other foot with his paws and giving it the same treatment.
"S-stop!" she finally manages to gasp between giggling fits, "please."
Grinning to himself, Kerr licks her toes, then releases his grip on her foot and focuses on the lock on her other leg. It, too, yelds to the effect of the metal disc. Moving up to her left side, he caresses her muzzle for a moment, then steps back and removes his robe.
"What?" she asks, puzzled, "what are you doing?"
Instead of replying, the rabbit grabs the blanket and slips under it to lie next to her slim, black-furred body. Moving slowly, he first licks her left breast, then her right before working his way up to her throat while at the same time crawling on top of her.
With his tongue moving all over her throat and muzzle, it takes almost a minute before she notices that he has unlocked her left arm and is surreptiously trying to move the key to his other paw. It takes all her patience to pretend not to notice as he struggles with the metal disc, but finally the last restraint disappears and she can finally do what she wants, no, needs. Wrapping her arms around him she quickly spins them both around, trapping him under herself. "I..." she begins, almost crying, "I was so scared! I thought you were..." Sob. "They wouldn't tell me..." No longer able to hold back her emotions, she buries her face in his soft chest-fur and starts crying.
Not knowing what to do, Kerr can only pat her back and whisper soothing words in her ears until she, completely spent, rolls over on her side and falls asleep, still holding him tightly.