Page 6 of Stags

“Two?” said the bartender.

“Please,” said Athos, producing his credit card.

The bartender took it.

Stockton watched the bartender go to mix the drinks, hoping the conversation had moved away from the fact that he’d grown up with a shared custody situation, unlike almost every deerkin he’d ever known.

Typically, deerkin either stuck to the old ways or they assimilated and coupled up. Strangely enough, the divorce rate amongst pair-bonded preykin was much lower than amongst predatorkin. Why that was, no one knew, but Stockton thought that if you were stubborn enough to go against your species’ tradition, you tended to be pretty certain about it.

“I thought for sure you said he’d be here,” said Athos. “I thought it was the whole reason you were here, because he signed you up, some kind of uncle-nephew bonding experience.”

Great, they were still talking about Bruin. “Not bonding experience really,” said Stockton. “I had a steady girlfriend, but it didn’t end up working out, and he said that this was just what I needed to get my mind off all of that.”

“Right,” said Athos. “Well, I hope it’s true.”

“Thanks.”

“No, I mean, for me,” said Athos. “I don’t know if you know this, but I used to be married.”

“I didn’t,” said Stockton. “I guess it didn’t work out?”

The bartender brought over their drinks and gave Athos back his credit card, saying he would leave the tab open until Athos wanted to close it. Athos tucked the card away, thanking the bartender, and addressing Stockton. “So, my ex was a swan,” he said.

Stockton was surprised. You didn’t hear about swans dating outside of their species a lot.

“I know,” said Athos. “Me too. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when it turned out she’d been having this longterm affair with another swan, right? Three fucking years, and I was too busy at the office to notice, or that was what she said.”

“I’m sorry,” said Stockton.

“They say that bucks like us, that we’re incapable of fidelity, but—”

“Bullshit,” said Stockton.

“Women cheat, too, is all I’m saying.” Athos drank his gin and tonic.

“Hell, yes, they do.”

“Oh, your girl? She wasn’t faithful?”

Stockton’s shoulders sagged. “I guess I wonder if it’s ridiculous to think we can fight our instincts like that? Maybe we’re all supposed to be doing it this way.”

“Was she a doe?”

Stockton nodded. “I’ve never…” He told this to his gin and tonic, not to Athos. “I’ve never been with a woman of another species.”

“Well,” said Athos. “You’re not missing much, not when it comes to most birds, anyway. Not a lot of, um, deep penetration when they’re not designed to take it.”

“Right,” said Stockton, who knew about this. Sometimes, birdkin people would get various kinds of surgeries to give them deeper cloacas, to mimic vaginas. Sometimes, the males had penises constructed. Stockton was of the opinion that people should be allowed to do whatever they wanted to their bodies, of course, but he had to admit he didn’t entirely understand.

The rumor was that bird sex was different… less orgasmic, perhaps, but more of an intense and pleasurable bonding experience. Falling in love with a bird was like nothing anyone could conceive of, an intensity that was overwhelming. Birdsmated.

Of course, then there were certain kinds of ducks with their corkscrew genitalia, and labyrinthine vagina canals, and those sorts of species made war as much as love, if he understood it correctly.

“But you’re young,” said Athos. “You should experiment, not fall head-over-heels for a swan lady when you’re barely twenty and waste the best years of your life in adoration of her while she’s totally planning on falling in love with someone else.” He winced. “Okay, that’s not fair. I don’t guess she planned it.”

“So, now, this, it’s you trying to get back to your roots, do things the traditional way?”

Athos toyed with the tip of one of his antlers. “Oh, wow, I don’t know about that. Maybe? My mother, she never liked it that I had settled down with Cira—that was my wife—because it meant I was less available to the family. She thought my devotion should be to my nieces and nephews and sisters, not to a wife. I tried to balance it. It helped that Cira and I couldn’t have children ourselves, of course, so having my nieces and nephews, it was a good substitute. I’m proud of my heritage, and I’m not trying to deny where I came from, but also… it’s fucking lonely being a buck, you know?”

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