Writer's note: This story contains some terms specific to my "Greenbird" related stories: Andyne (people with bird wings), Renoige (furry catlike people), and Amphibious (sorta fish-like people who can live underwater).
*
"Well hello there new best friend," said Lea. Lea was an andyne; just over two meters tall and pale with a large pair of pure white-feathered wings. His jaw-length hair was white too, though he was clearly in his mid-twenties, and wrangled back into a short spiky ponytail at the back of his head.
Lea sat down heavily on his couch next to his "new best friend," a large blue insulated water cooler full of ice water. Lea had no idea how much it held, but figured it would be enough to dilute a single bottle of Kannar. The dorm room he was staying in was a bit larger than average, with his bed on one side and a small living area on the other: a worn plaid sofa against the wall with two side tables and a small thin-screen television in the corner, sitting on the metal desk that had come with the room.
Lea popped the latches on the top of the cooler. The bottle of Kannar he intended to drink was on the side table next to him, and all he had to do was twist off the top and pour it into the ice water. Since he hadn't measured the water at all, Lea was gratified when the water level stopped just shy of the cooler's lid as he tipped in the last of the Kannar. He used a stirring spoon he'd nicked from his sister's quarters and mixed the beverage carefully; Kannar was a fancy brand of liquor brewed from an infusion of dagger root, a plant that was considered toxic to most humanoid species. It was drunk safely by andynes, usually diluted with something like ten parts water to one part infusion.
That evening was the end of Lea's last working day before his first real break in months. He'd come to the airship almost seven months before, when his sister's husband had died suddenly. The loss had caused his sister to have a nervous breakdown, and her second - Azriel - had had to take over, with Lea's help. Co-captaining an airship like the Greenbird had an extremely steep learning curve, but Azriel was extremely competent, and there wasn't even a hiccup in operations. However, both Lea and Azriel had had precious little time off since everything started, and they had both been looking forward to this break for months: the airship was docked over a forest city for maintenance and supply orders, and would stay that way for three short but glorious days.
"So," Lea patted the cooler next to him. "What should we watch? I vote...um..." Lea turned on his television and scrolled through his entertainment library. "Give me a sec." Lea perused his downloaded movies and shows for several minutes, and eventually settled on a series he'd recently found called Bays of Our Lives, an animated soap opera about manatees who owned feuding fashion empires. Once that was decided, he poured his first bottle of diluted Kannar and drank it in a single gulp. The drink was unusually bitter, but Lea didn't want to get up for more water to dilute it and poured himself another.
Lea vaguely followed the fashionista/model manatee love triangles on the television for three back-to-back episodes before the pressure in his lower belly started getting distracting. Lea's hand dropped into his lap. Kannar wasn't an aphrodisiac, but it made the region between his legs unusually sensitive, which helped him hold his bladder when he really had to go.
Lea yawned again and sat up carefully. He chugged the rest of the bitter liquid in his current cup of diluted infusion and used his wings to push himself off the couch into an awkward standing position. He felt like he was going to leak and froze for a long moment. The moment passed, though, and he picked up the remote.
"Hoo, I gotta go," Lea sighed to himself. He paused his soap opera and turned to his cooler. "Hold down the fort while I'm gone. Don't change the channel on me, alright?"
The cooler didn't respond.
"Thanks, you're a peach," yawned Lea. He slid a hand down the front of his pants, to both adjust and lightly stimulate himself to ensure he wouldn't leak on the short walk to the bathroom. "See you later, best friend!" he said, stepping out into the hall.
Despite the late hour, there was somebody else out in the hallway: a young, pale black-haired human man, who hastily rounded a nearby corner and skittered into the bathroom. Lea didn't give the man much thought as he ambled toward the bathroom door, but did register another pair of footprints echoing up the hall as he grasped the door handle.
One of the stall doors slammed shut when Lea entered.
"Hello?" Lea called.
"S-sorry about that," said a voice in the closed bathroom stall. After a hesitant silence, Lea heard the guy in the stall unzip his pants and moan desperately, letting go into the toilet bowl. Lea approached the nearest urinal and pulled out his dick. It was harder than he'd anticipated so he stood and waited, trying to focus while listening to the human man peeing in the stall. It helped a little, and Lea was able to force out a little of the straining flood in his bladder. After about thirty seconds he was able to relax and let it flow slowly, until the bathroom door opened behind him. The human in the bathroom stall stopped peeing abruptly, and a large, fluffy renoige man with black fur walked in. It broke Lea's already precarious concentration, and the flow into the urinal became a drip. Lea groaned.
"Jack?" called the renoige man. The room suddenly became noticeably warmer, and there was no response from the man in the stall. "I know you're in here, I can smell you." The renoige man strode behind Lea over to the stalls and pounded on the door. The man in the stall gave a quiet, distressed moan.
"Excuse me," said Lea, turning around. "Hiyno Dmeytri, right? You work in delivery and ironworks, yes?"
The renoige man's amber eyes widened in surprise, then shock. "How-...how do you-"
"I'm the captain's younger brother. I remember Azriel interviewing you." Dmeytri stared at him, speechless. Lea kept talking. "If you're not going to use the bathroom, can you at least wait until your friend is done taking a piss before barging in?"
Dmeytri nodded slowly, his eyes wide. He was almost as tall as Lea, but the volume of fur he had made him look much bigger. It was then that Lea realized his cock was still sticking out of his fly, fully-erect with his long foreskin pulled back. He quickly covered it and Dmeytri stepped back, looking as embarrassed as Lea felt.
"Oh uh...yeah. Sorry," said Dmeytri, shrinking away. He left the bathroom door without another word.
Lea turned back to the urinal. It took some effort, but he was able to empty a little more of his bladder. Meanwhile, the man in the stall finished his pee after some hesitation, and opened the stall door as Lea was zipping up. They both stepped up to the bathroom sink at the same time, and Lea noticed the human man's eyes: they had no irises or pupils and instead were a solid, burning orange, glowing from within against the bathroom's harsh fluorescent lights. Lea searched his mind for the man's name.
"Mister...Jack Tahney?" said Lea slowly. The man looked up a little, recoiling from the sink. "Feeling better?"
"You were listening?" gulped Jack, turning pale while his eyes burned brighter. "I'm sorry."
"Well I wasn't trying to," Lea replied, reaching up with one damp hand to rub his temples; the Kannar had definitely been stronger than normal, and it was making him a little lightheaded. "And you shouldn't apologize for using the bathroom, we encourage that here."
"Heh," Jack laughed half-heartedly. There was a long, awkward pause, which Lea eventually broke:
"You off for the night?"
Jack nodded.
