Botha,
from a big scale, was a strip of spires and steel on the planet. A metropolitan
band of concrete and plastic that went both ways for a hundred miles. This,
coupled with how hard it was to find natural lands not owned by private firms
that strictly surveyed their grounds and charged for entry, made it difficult
to plan any retreats to the country. It was a rich person's game. And Yara
didn't care much for playing with rich people.

Still,
there were jobs outside the city where she might find herself out hunting in a
tall pine forest. And in those moments alone in the wilderness, she might let
her guard down long enough to savor the smell of fallen pine needles and caws
of ravens.

It
was something she currently regretted sharing with Marlo. The small-for-his-species
fox led the big-for-her-species hyena into a basement beneath a skyscraper.
Under the massive structure was a lobby with several small businesses: a café,
a nail salon, bodega, and some nondescript business front with a sign that
said, Nature's Finest.

“What
is this, Marlo?" Yara, perhaps a little on guard, barked the question. It
turned the head of a sleepy security guard and made Marlo wince. Yara did not
particularly like surprises, especially when sober.

The
fox took her paw in his, dwarfed by the hyena's. “Trust me, hmm, Yara?"

Growling,
the hyena let Marlo lead her to what Yara expected to be a dive. When they
entered Nature's Finest, her muzzle
crinkled at the smell of patchouli. The small lobby was dimly lit, and at the
front counter waited a bull who might actually been able to put up a fight
against Yara. The bouncer eyed them both, before he asked, “You Marlo?"

“Yeah,
I had the 10:30 appointment for two."

“ID."

Marlo
retrieved his phone from the pocket of his blue blazer and pulled up his ID.
The bouncer scanned the screen before he nodded to a door, “Down the hall, room
is on the right."

Marlo
nodded and moved for the door. Yara locked eyes with the bull a moment, sizing
each other up, before the fox tugged on her elbow.

“Come
on, Yara."

The
hyena reluctantly followed. The hallway was nondescript, piping from the
skyscraper worked along the ceiling. They took the door directed for them and
entered a dark room. Marlo stepped in without hesitation, and Yara sensed the
room not very big, so she did not worry about someone waiting for them. Marlo
shut the door behind her, and they were in darkness.

“Can
you finally tell me what is going on?" Yara asked. She could just make out the
outline of her fox's triangular ears.

A
voice started up in the ceiling, “Thank you for your appointment with Nature's Finest."

“I
found this place on the net," Marlo said, talking over the artificial voice's
spiel.

“Your
experience is important to us, Marlo," the voice said, in that way machine's
did when they read a name, like Maaar-lo.

“And
what is this place?" Yara snarled.

“You
chose, the pine barrens of eastern Navairn to visit."

Yara
more heard than saw Marlo's grin. “You'll see."

“We
hope you enjoy your stay," the voice said as the walls began to fade in. The
walls of this room, it turned out, were high definition screens. The rising
light showed Yara the room was smaller than a studio apartment, unfurnished but
for a cut in the wall where the screens pushed out to form a bench. Nozzles
ejected some kind of vapor into the room with a hushed hiss. The ceiling also
held a screen and the room, which first smelled like a cleaning product, began
to take on a different scent. Yara squinted a little as her eyes adjusted the
light as the screens came fully on. Some bird call to her left made her head
swerve ears-first towards a corner of the room.

The
room finished its transformation and gave a near perfect illusion of standing
in a pine forest.

“I
know it can't beat the real deal, but, well, what do you think?"

The
once bench in the room was an overturned tree. Holographic projectors in the
ceiling even made a moth flutter between the both of them. The room now smelled
of pine, but off. Botha residents who
never left the city might be fooled, but Yara nearly tasted the chemical cocktail
that gave off notes of pine needles. But it was just the needles. Not the
smells of bark or brush or still drying mud or her sweat from hiking the last
two hours.

When
she stared at a point long enough the illusion of things going on and on ended
and she saw a flat wall.

The
birdsong offered little solace from Yara's pensive silence.

Marlo
squeezed his arms together a little nervously. “I… I thought you might like a
space all to your own? Something to go to when you start to get sick of this,"
Marlo swung his arms out theatrically, “city."

“Marlo…"
Yara said, voice soft in a way that made the fox lean in. Past him, in the
distance, two blue-jays winged through the trees. Her eyes fell on the fox and
saw his mixture of anxiety and hope. “This is…" Thoughtful. Kind. Fake.
Synthetic. Cold as her prosthetic arm. Her organic paw reflexively rubbed along
the hard plastic and metal of her prosthetic. The sleeve of her duster hid it,
but she felt how her arm did not
yield as flesh might.

In
some ways, this place reflected her.

Yara
did not know if she liked that or not.

“Yes,
Yara?"

Yara
did not want to hurt the fox. He clearly planned this as a surprise; it was frustratingly thoughtful and sweet
in gesture.

She
found a reaction she could give and shook her head. A wry, laugh from the back
of her throat. “You're too much, you know that?"

“Huh?"

“This!"
The hyena threw out her arms like Marlo had before, holding them open she
walked into the center of the room, Marlo so short the tops of his ears only
brushed Yara's arm as it passed overhead. Yara faced him and saw the door
disappeared. It was all forest now.

“How
did you find this place?"

“I
knew where to look," Marlo explained. “It's not like the holo-suites in the
higher decks of some of the towers round here. And I'm pretty sure this place
stole their equipment, but… it's affordable, you know?"

Yara
nodded. She spun around and sprinted at the wall.

“Yara!"

Slam! The big hyena kicked heel first
into the screen. The plexiglass screen absorbed her boot's blow harmlessly, the
image rippled a little. She clenched her prosthetic paw and considered using it
like a hammer.

The
bull's voice from up front piped in from a speaker, “Please refrain from
damaging the merchandise."

Marlo
looked up into the forest canopy and said, “Yes! Yes! Won't happen again, I
swear!" He wheeled back on Yara and hissed, “What the fuck was that?"

Yara
snarled at him. “You know the best part about being out in the woods is?"

Marlo
flinched.

The
hyena clapped her organic paw against the wall, “You can run and run and walk
and walk and just move till your breathless. Till you're panting and slobbering
like a dumb wolf, and you never run out of forest. But all the trees are still
different. This is… this is… a box!"

Marlo
stared at her wide-eyed, trembling a little. “I was just trying… trying…" he
shook his head and Yara saw wet bead the corner of his eyes. “Fine! You know
where this place is now. I showed you my surprise, I'm going home." Marlo
turned for the door.

Yara
growled, more mad at herself than Marlo. It wasn't even Marlo's fault she felt this way. “Marlo, wait,"
she said, but the fox was pawing at the wall, searching for the button that
would open the door. He got it to slide open, but before he could leave, Yara
grabbed his shoulder and flung him back inside. The small fox stumbled
backwards and fell on in tail.

“Ah!
Fuck! What the hell, Yara?"

“I
told you to wait," the hyena grunted. She grabbed his arm and tugged him to his
feet. “Sit," she shoved him towards the overturned tree.

“Fine,
fine!"

The
fox took a seat, paws in the pockets of his blazer. He glared at Yara, and the
hyena couldn't help but smile at him.

“What?"
Marlo snapped.

“You're
cute when you're pouting."

“Dammit,
Yara."

“It
was good," the hyena said. She sat beside him. Yara hooked her arm around
Marlo's shoulder and drew the fox close. She burrowed her muzzle into one of
his large ears and took a calming breath of his scent. She licked him there,
which made Marlo squirm.

“Ah,
stop." The fox managed to get his head away from hers and met her gaze. “What
do you mean, it was good?" The residual anger in his green eyes hurt Yara a
little.

Yara
pat the trunk they sat on. “This. It was a good idea. You did a good job."

Marlo
scoffed. The ear Yara licked flicked to try and get her slobber off. “You've
got a funny way of showing it."

Yara
rolled her eyes and leaned back against the wall. From the other side of the
room, it might look like her head craned back and rested on nothing, big
disc-like ears pushed to her face by an invisible force. She said, “You know I have a hard time taking gifts."

“That
sounds like a you problem," Marlo said. He still sounded hurt, but he had
rested against her side now, leaning into her touch.

“You're
not going to let me off easy, hmm?"

“No,"
Marlo nuzzled into her side before grumbling, “What if you broke that screen? They're expensive."

“I
just felt trapped," Yara said, pinching her lips a little at the admittance.

“Yara…"
She felt Marlo looking up at her, but Yara studied the forest on the other side
of the room. The trees swayed, ever so slightly, to give a sense of wind
blowing. “I know you do," Marlo said quietly.

Yara
did look down at him now, to find him watching his paw as it stroked up and
down her thigh. “How did you know?"

Marlo
chuckled. “We've been together for a while now, silly. I pick up on things."

Yara
growled a little. She did not like being transparent. In her world, playing
with your cards close to your chest was necessary to survive. “So you came up
with this?"

“A
vacation, you know?"

“Vacation,
huh?"

“A
little one. A place to go where we could just sit and look at trees."

Yara
thought about that. For a few minutes, both furs sat in silence while around
them the artificial forest swayed. Birds called. Insects flew in and out of
view.

Eventually
Yara said, “I'll have to talk with the owner. The smell is all wrong."

Marlo
giggled a little. “That so?"

“Yes.
I can see the appeal, though," Yara
said, and squeezed Marlo tight. “Though I don't think I'd come here alone."

“What
do you mean?" Marlo asked.

“You
know what I mean."

“Try
me?"

Yara
let out a dramatic sigh. She hadn't thought of words for the feeling that implied. She said, “This place… it's
just a box. It sucks. It's crummy. But with you here, Marlo… it, uh, feels like
a forest. Like the real deal."

Marlo
snuggled deeper into her side. He pulled his knees up onto the tree to lie
halfway in her lap. A giddy laugh from him made her heart flutter a little. She
loved that sound.

“I
mean it!" she protested. “This city is the same way. You make it worth it."

“Hehe,
oh yeah?"

“Yes!
I only love being here because I love you!" the words spilled out of Yara
almost accidentally. Marlo stared up at her, a little gawking grin on his
muzzle.

“Yara
did you just—mmph!"

The
hyena shut him up by forcing their muzzles together in a kiss. Never mind it
was the first time since childhood she used that word on someone else. She
wasn't going to let Marlo point it out, either. Their maws joined with their
tongues, searching and warm. The familiar taste of the fox something that no one could recreate. And it was hers.
Marlo was hers. Nothing would take him from her.

“Please
do not fuck in our holo-suite," the bull said through the speakers. The plea
sounded half-hearted, though, like it was something that happened again and
again.

Yara
dropped Marlo. The fox squeaked when his head landed in the hyena's lap and
they both laughed. Marlo sat up and pecked Yara on the nose before he
whispered, “I love you, too, Yara."

Yara
smirked, “What else is new?"