Hot Kofe

"Sorry," Kofe said, "I like to keep the apartment cool. It's still a little toasty for my liking, but this is as low as the thermostat will go."

"It's freezing," Miller complained. Kofe reached over and nudged him with her elbow to get his attention, Miller scowling up at her as she patted the cushion between them with her heavy hand.

"You can scooch a little closer you know, I'm plenty warm."

He recalled her forceful bear hug back in the fast food restaurant, how incredibly warm and soft her body had been. He knew exactly what she was doing, however, he had quickly cottoned on to her tactics. This was probably all part of some elaborate scheme to get him into her arms.

At this rate he was going to get frostbite, so he didn't have much of a choice. She smirked at him as she saw his scowl deepen, somehow knowing that he had changed his mind just by reading his expression.

"Alright," he grumbled, "but only because I'm freezing my ass off. Don't read into this, I'm not doing it because I like you."

"I would never attempt to misinterpret your actions," she said with a toothy grin. "Now come here, you'll catch your death."

He reluctantly shuffled closer to her, but almost the moment that he began to move, Kofe reached out and hooked him with her long arm again. She dragged him closer, wrapping her arm around him and pushing his head into the side of her ample bosom. His face sank into her malleable fat, her soft fur separated from his cheek by naught but an insubstantial barrier of thin fabric in the form of her stretched t-shirt. The heavy globe was large enough that it not only encompassed his head, but spilled down over his shoulder too. Even what little of its weight was resting on him was enough to squash him down into the couch, it felt like a rucksack full of bricks had been slung across his shoulder. How did she even walk with these things?

That wonderful scent assailed him once again, worming its way into his brain and clouding his judgment. She smelled so undeniably feminine, her taste in perfumes and soaps mirroring that of her human counterparts.

Almost immediately the aura of heat that her body radiated warmed him, the chill air seeming to recede. It was such a stark contrast, reminding him of coming in from the snow as a child and taking a seat in front of a roaring fire, a cup of hot cocoa in hand. She warmed him in the same way that a hot drink did, the sensation similar to the feeling of a warm beverage sliding down one's throat and filling their belly. It permeated him to the core, relieving and somehow calming.

"We can stay like this for a while," she whispered, her voice low and husky. "Isn't it comfortable?"

His body instinctively sought out heat to warm itself, and her perfumed scent was so inviting. His hand brushed against the silky fur of her thigh, and he couldn't help but let his mind wander, imagining what being engulfed in that soft coat would feel like.

"You can touch me if you want to," she said, her warm breath blowing his hair. "I don't mind. Wrap your arms around me, get in close..."

Miller awoke as if from a dream, pushing away from her as his head seemed to clear of the fog that had fallen over it. He allowed her to keep her arm draped about his shoulders, leaning his body against hers for warmth, but he was intent on wresting control of the situation from his furry companion. He couldn't be seduced so easily, to allow himself to be plied by such an obvious trick would cost him his self-respect.

"Don't get any big ideas," he grumbled, shifting his weight as she peered down at him. "I'm just cold is all."

She seemed taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor, perhaps wrongly assuming that she had finally broken him. But instead of disappointment, he saw excitement in her expression. It was if the more he resisted her, the more she wanted him.

"Actually, I have to get up pretty early for work tomorrow," Miller said. "I'd better get some sleep."

Kofe seemed disappointed, but she didn't press the issue, releasing him from her grasp to shiver as he sat beside her.

"If you insist. You can take the couch, it's plenty large enough for you. I'd offer you my bed as a courtesy, but the couch is too small for me to sleep on comfortably. My bedroom is in there," she added, pointing towards a door with her clawed finger.

"Yeah, I don't need to know that."

"Well if you need anything, come find me," she said with a toothy grin. "My door is always open to you."

"Duly noted," he grumbled. She stood and began to walk away, drink in hand. Miller climbed up to peer over the tall headrest of the couch and called after her.

"Hey! Don't I get a blanket? I'll freeze to death out here!"

"Oh, sorry," she chuckled. "I sometimes forget that humans can't survive in the cold. I'll get you something suitable."

He sank back into the cushions, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched his breath crystallize. How the hell had she managed to get the thermostat this low? This should be registering as a malfunction on the station's life support system, how had she avoided a call from maintenance? He had half a mind to leave, but the human and Borealan apartments were on different ends of the residential quarter. It was quite a walk back, and he had to be up again for work in six or seven hours.

Kofe returned, sneaking up behind the couch and depositing a gigantic blanket on top of him. It was the size of the carpet in his living room and oppressively heavy, quickly burying him in its deep folds. He struggled to free himself, the Polar laughing at his muffled complaints, until finally he dug himself free and poked his head out into the cold air. It was covered in fine hairs, almost like fur, and he spat a few of the white strands out of his mouth as he glared up at her.

"I said a blanket," he snapped, "you could use this thing as a tarp for a shuttle. What's this made of? Please tell me you didn't knit this from your own fur..."

"Relax, it's imitation fur," she said as he struggled to find a comfortable position. "But it's a pretty good approximation of a Polar's coat. When you live alone like I do, it's a comfort to feel as though you're sharing a bed with someone. We're pack animals you know, we're used to sleeping in huge piles."

"A pack? More like a pod," Miller chided.

"You flatterer," she chuckled, waving her hand dismissively. Again she had taken an insult as a compliment, much to his chagrin. "Sleep tight, Jeff."

"Yeah, tight. This blanket is crushing me. I'm going to be suffocated in my sleep."

She turned and made her way back towards the bedroom, stopping at the automatic door to glance back at the couch before vanishing from view.

***

Kofe closed the door behind her, and once she was out of sight of her guest, she made her way over to the wall. There was a touch panel mounted near the bed that controlled the thermostat in the apartment. It was currently set to six degrees Celsius. Polars preferred it to be around ten degrees, and so it was a little cooler than she generally liked. There were two wires trailing away from the device that led to a second, smaller box that was taped to the wall beside it. It was a single-board microcomputer that had been rigged to bypass the safety features on the thermostat, disabling the automatic alarm that would alert the station's central computer to the dangerous drop in temperature. Dangerous for humans maybe, but pleasant for Polars.

They were made by a wily Federation Polar who worked on the station and who had taken it upon himself to fix the problem encountered by so many of his kin. It wasn't exactly in line with station regulations, not that anyone actually read them, but what the humans didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

She turned it down a little further, chuckling quietly to herself. Three degrees should do the trick. Satisfied that the trap was set, she retreated to her bed, stripping off her clothing before slipping beneath the cover. It was lighter and thinner than what she usually used, and if all went to plan, the freezing human would be forced to get in close to her for warmth.

Now all she had to do was wait for her prey to come to her...

***

Miller wrapped the massive blanket around himself tightly like a caterpillar in a cocoon. The apartment was freezing, it almost seemed to have gotten colder as the night went on. He was painfully aware of every draft of cold air that penetrated the sheet and stabbed at him like a knife. The temperature on the station didn't plummet when the sun set, as there was no sun. The lamps in the ceiling only imitated the night and day cycle on a superficial level, the temperature on the station was regulated by entirely unrelated climate control systems. He had lived and worked here for so long that he had almost forgotten the discomfort of a summer's day and the sting of a winter's night. This was an unpleasant reminder.

As large and as thick as this blanket was, it just wasn't doing a good enough job of trapping his body heat. His teeth were chattering, and he was shivering violently, at this rate he would end up too sick to work tomorrow.

He remembered Kofe's invitation to join her in bed. He knew that it was another one of her ploys, but the allure of her warm body was overpowering his stubbornness. If he was fully aware of her attempts to manipulate him, did it still count? Was he still succumbing to her trickery if he did so voluntarily? He was beginning to fear her satisfied grin more than his impending frostbite.

To hell with it, he wasn't going to get a wink of sleep this way, he had to brave Kofe's bedroom and do his best to ignore her advances.

He crawled out from under the sheet with considerable difficulty, it was unreasonably heavy, and then flopped down onto the floor. He considered wrapping the blanket around himself and bringing it with him, if only to serve as a barrier between him and Kofe, but it weighed enough that dragging it all the way across the room would have exhausted him. It could have been used as a fucking tent.

Attempting to stave off his shivering, he walked across the apartment and hesitated at the door, his fist raised as he prepared to knock. Was he really going to give her the satisfaction? What was he even doing here, why had he agreed to sleep over at her place to begin with?

He knocked on the false wooden panel, and before he had even lowered his arm, he heard her honeyed voice from the other side as she cooed her invitation.

"Come in, Jeff."

He rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath as the panel slid open. Kofe was lying in a massive bed, two or three times the length and width of a king size, her generous figure covered by a thin blanket that rose to her chest. It clung to her body, leaving very little to the imagination. He could see that she was no longer wearing her shirt, and there were no visible straps on her shoulders that might betray the presence of a bra. Without its support, her bust was at the mercy of gravity, spreading out across her chest like a pair of giant water balloons that were about ready to burst. He could have upended a gallon drum of fluid into one of them with room to spare. It was a miracle that she had ever been able to cram these things into a shirt of that size.

"You just couldn't stay away, could you?"

She was putting on her best seductive voice and striking a pose like she was doing a photo shoot for a magazine, one arm resting above her head and her hips turned on their side, accentuating the curves of her buxom figure.

"It was either share a bed with you, or freeze to death," he replied grumpily. "And I want you to know that it was a difficult decision."

She flung the sheet aside and patted the mattress beside her, Miller reluctantly walking around the edge of the massive bed and struggling up onto it. It was about a foot higher than was convenient for a human. How much had it cost the UNN to furnish all of these Borealan-sized apartments?

Miller had scarcely tumbled onto the bed before Kofe threw the sheet about him like she was trapping an animal in a net, dragging him closer to her and engulfing him in her furry body. She was like a giant, fluffy beanbag, her malleable flesh morphing around him like an amoeba that was trying to swallow him up.

Immediately he was hit by a wave of heat, his violent shivering abating as one of her long arms curled around him.

"Are you...nude?" Miller asked. He could feel her downy fur against the exposed skin on the back of his neck, her breasts cascading over his shoulders in an avalanche of flesh. He felt as if he could have lost his entire body in her cleavage, deep as it was. Her breath blew in his hair, the tire of her belly pressing against his butt. Fortunately, he was still wearing his overalls, but her nakedness made him uncomfortable all the same.

"Don't most people sleep in the nude?" she asked, whispering in his ear.

"Not to my knowledge...especially when they have guests."

"Well Polars certainly do. Are you warming up now, spooning with me? If you had some more meat on your bones, you might not get so cold."

"Are you kidding me?" Miller grumbled, shuffling as he tried to get some distance from her. It was to no avail, however, she had a tight hold on him. Beneath her fat, she was hiding muscles like iron. "I work in engineering, I know full well that you've done something to the thermostat. It shouldn't be able to go this low without triggering a maintenance alarm."

"Maybe you could stay over for the day tomorrow and find out what's wrong with it?"

"You want me to fix an appliance? Really? Wait a minute, have you been watching human porn in an attempt to find out how we court?"

"No..." Kofe replied unconvincingly.

"Well, that isn't how it works."

"I wish you'd loosen up a little," she said, squeezing him like he was nothing more than a teddy bear. "You humans are always so uptight. There's nothing sacred about sex you know, it's just a natural function of your body. We can all do it at any time, for any reason, and with whoever we want. It feels good, so why resist it?"

"We don't even know each other," he shot back, his cheeks starting to burn as the conversation changed gears.

"You've taken me on two dates," Kofe protested, shifting her weight to ensure that he could feel her doughy body engulfing him. "According to human courting rituals, it's supposed to be an appropriate time to make a move."

"I don't even know...how you work," Miller added. "I mean, you're an alien."

"You could let me take the lead," she whispered, her puffy lips grazing his ear. "I promise it would feel good. I really, really like you, Jeff. I've never met a human who was so...evasive before. You're smart, wily, willful. If you don't like me back, won't you let me have you? Just once, so that I can get you off my mind? You wouldn't regret it, I might even be able to change your mind about me."

It was an oddly heartfelt plea, the sincerity of her words softening his stony heart. She really did like him, she wasn't just chasing sex or novelty. This was the only way that she knew how to express herself, the way that her kind usually got what they wanted, through seduction.

Was she really so terrible? It was only because of how pushy and persistent she was that he had gained such a negative opinion of her, along with his apprehensions about sleeping with an alien. How would that work? What were her parts like? She was so big and so strange...

Fuck it, his romantic life had no pulse, and it wasn't like he had the time or the desire to go searching for a more suitable mate. What harm would it do to give her a chance? At the very least, it might get her off his back. Literally in this case.

"Alright," he sighed, "I'll give you a chance."

He heard her mewl with joy, and then in a second she was pushing her face into the nape of his neck. Her kisses were warm and wet, her soft lips crawling across his skin as she mouthed and nibbled gently with her sharp teeth. His spine arched, a bolt of electricity coursing through him as her massive hands began to roam across his body, probing for a way past his clothing. Nobody had ever touched him like this before. She was so aggressive and greedy, yet gentle and considerate, holding back her immense strength to accommodate his human frailty.

She bit his shoulder more aggressively, contrasting it with a soothing, lingering kiss a moment later.

"Wait, wait," he protested as he struggled to regain control of his faculties. "I meant we can go on a real date."

"Oh," she replied sheepishly, "of course. I'll just..."

She rolled off him, lying on her back beside him, the springs in the mattress creaking unhappily. He was initially pleased that she was giving him some space for once, but then the cold set in and he began to miss the warmth of her fur. She noticed his shivering, creeping slowly closer to him again.

"We can still cuddle," she suggested, "I promise not to cross any lines."

He reluctantly agreed, and once again he felt her arms close around him, her heat staving off the cold.

CHAPTER 4: DINING EXPERIENCE

"So what makes this restaurant better than the other one we went to?" Kofe asked, standing with her hands on her hips as she examined the establishment. She narrowed her eyes as she struggled to read the text on the sign that hung from the building's facade, at head-height to her. "La G...Grande Assiette. What does that mean?" she asked, butchering the pronunciation.

"It's French," Miller replied, sizing up the doorway and wondering how Kofe was going to fit through it. It was one thing to cause a scene at a cheap fast food joint, but it was quite another to create a public disturbance in the Pinwheel's only high-end restaurant. He wasn't sure that they would even be able to seat a Borealan.

He had foregone his usual yellow overalls and had instead opted to wear the one presentable set of clothes that he owned. It wasn't quite a suit, more like a pair of jeans and a dress shirt, but it was the best that he could do on short notice. He had impressed upon Kofe the importance of dressing properly, yet here she was, wearing a black linen shift dress. It might have been more modest on a smaller woman, but it clung to her exaggerated figure. There was enough material there to use it as a sail for a boat. It was a knee-length, sleeveless dress with a v-neck that was light and floaty, designed for hot weather. It contrasted with her white fur, making the way that she was spilling out of it all the more conspicuous.

"This is just what humans do," he explained, "you take your date to a fancy restaurant."

"That doesn't make much sense. In my experience, expensive food is rarely the best tasting or the most filling. Food from street vendors is usually the best."

"Well you wanted to go on a real date, so here we are. It's a human custom, so just go with it."

"Hey, I'm not complaining about free food, I just thought it was an odd choice."

"Free food?" Miller asked.

"Yeah, I read up on this ritual. The male is supposed to pay the bill."

"You realize they'll kick me off the station if I run out of money and can't afford to pay my rent and utility fees, right?"

She reached down and messed up his hair playfully, Miller cursing as he tried in vain to straighten it again.

"Come on Jeff, we have a date to go on."

She took him by the hand and dragged him along behind her, leading him up to the restaurant's glass door. Miller would never have imagined that he would one day come to dread the sight of a door, but he felt his cheeks already beginning to flush as the patrons behind the windows turned to stare.

Kofe crouched, turning sideways and taking a deep breath as she sucked in her gut. Her breasts caught on the frame as she pushed through the doorway, and she attempted to compress them with her arm without much luck, eventually succeeding in pushing her way through. She stood and brushed off her dress, the black material already coated in a layer of white hairs that made her look like she was covered in glitter. She had to crouch a little in here, as the ceiling was a little too low for her to stand upright. There were also light fixtures and chandeliers, Kofe dodging them as Miller led her to a podium, behind which a terrified head waiter was standing.