So this story is special because it's my introduction, both to myself and everybody else, of Daph's eventual girlfriend and wife, Holly, a ring-tailed lemur. I wanted to write something with both of them to get an idea of Holly's character and what she's like and make a cute, gay scene between the two of them. I consider it cheating a little since I'm jumping into the later, easy part of their relationship.

This is mostly if you're at all interested in Daph and where she'll eventually be. I hope you like it!
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Holly was originally never a morning person, but she was starting to become one after marrying Daph.
Even without an alarm, she found herself naturally waking up sometime around 8 or 9, which in college was usually a few hours after she’d already gone to sleep. But Daph was usually up and moving at the crack of dawn, leaping out of bed just as quickly as she’d passed out in it the night before. At first Holly tried to keep up, but gave up trying to match her new wife’s energy and stopped feeling bad about staying in bed while Daphodille got breakfast going. Or, at least, whatever she thought breakfast was. After Holly once caught Daph eating a bowl of raw almonds in milk and calling it breakfast, the lemur insisted on cooking them something more substantial every morning and forbade the squirrel from leaving the house before she ate some of it.

Holly’s eyes fluttered open and dimly watched the spinning blades of the ceiling fan before her brain got started a few minutes later like an old lawnmower engine that needed an oil change. When she glanced at the clock on the other side of the bed, Holly was surprised to find Daph still fast asleep beside her, long after she’d gotten used to seeing an empty pillow in the mornings. The first thing her anxiety went to was the fear that Daph had suddenly died during the night, but the sound of her soft breathing along with the gentle rise and fall of her copper-red shoulder peeking out from under the sheets was enough to dismiss the idea. Holly took a deep breath and flopped back into her pillow, smiling to herself. Obviously, Daph would be needing more sleep than usual lately.
Even without her glasses, Daph’s side of the bed was close enough for Holly to see clearly, meaning that she could make out the fly-away tufts of fur poking out from the tips of Daph’s ears and quietly wonder if she could shape them into points like some other squirrels had. It also meant that as she sighed in her sleep and awkwardly rolled over under the sheets, Holly could clearly see Daph’s resting face without needing to squint. Holly watched how Daph’s lips barely parted across her overbite as she slept, a tiny hint of off-white teeth visible between her lips. It was one of the only things the squirrel was insecure about, but Holly just appreciated that it gave kissing her a little extra texture to slide her tongue against.

Something fuzzy and soft brushed against Holly’s paw beneath the covers and she didn’t have to check to know it was Daph’s tail. Sometimes, during the night, it got stuck between her legs, tickling Holly if she was still awake. It was mostly the reason the lemur tended to take ‘Little Spoon’ when they were together, but sometimes they broke that rule and Holly would just have to deal with a face-full of her wife’s bushy fur.

Holly had forgotten to actually check the time, but decided she didn’t really care. If Daph wasn’t awake, it was probably still early. The dark curtains pulled permanently shut across the windows were fantastic sleep aides, but made their bedroom feel a little ‘unstuck’ in time. That was partially the point.

Just enough white morning light slipped through the gaps in the curtains for Holly’s eyes to adjust and watch Daph’s sleeping face. The irony of a lemur needing glasses wasn’t lost on her, but she still retained very effective night vision. She had no idea how long she’d been gazing at her before Daph’s face scrunched into a grimace and one of her eyes flicked open. A brilliant shade of green to match Holly’s orange, she joked sometimes about how the two of them would be easily able to find one another in a dark room just by eye color alone. Daph’s eye was only open for a second before it shut again as she turned onto her back, her head still at a ninety degree angle on her pillow, facing Holly.

After another few minutes, Daph slowly opened her eyes again, squinting her entire face to peer at Holly across from her. She sniffed a deep breath through her nose, then let it out through her mouth in a light groan. When she brought her arms from beneath the sheets to rub sleep from her eyes, they fell lower down her bare chest, giving Holly a peek at one of Daph’s dark, chocolate-colored nipples atop her breast.

“Morning,” Holly whispered. There was no one else around, no need to keep quiet other than her own desire not to break the morning’s peace.
“Hey,” Daph grunted back, her voice gravely as she spoke from her nose. She blinked and shook her head, then slid a palm down her face as if taking off a mask. “You’re never up before me.”
“I guess you needed the sleep,” Holly smiled. “You feeling okay?”
“Yeah! Yeah…Jutht…” She sat up a little to stretch before falling back into the mattress. “Hooh...God, I thlept like a rock.”
“Must’ve worn yourself out yesterday.”
“Not any more than uthual. I don’t think so, anyway.” Daph stretched her neck and propped her right arm under it to sit up a little.

“You probably needed the extra hours anyway,” Holly shrugged. “I dunno. That’s not my specialty.” The lemur smirked before sliding her arm out from the covers to lightly tweak one of Daph’s nipples. “But I’m glad you’re awake now.”
Daph raised an eyebrow and frowned incredulously.
“Are you really feelin’ it at…” She checked the clock over her shoulder. “Eight forty-five in the morning?”
“No, I’m pretty much a vegetable right now,” Holly shrugged before reaching out and bouncing the weight of Daph’s closest breast with her fingers. “I just like getting to see titties in the morning.” Daph laughed through her teeth and batted Holly’s hand away.
“I only thtarted sleeping topless because you did,” she said, instinctively pulling the sheets up to her chin.

“That’s because estrogen makes your nipples sore,” Holly said. She rolled onto her back and pulled the sheets down to her ribs. Her breasts just barely rose a few inches above her chest, but were very soft to the touch and fit her hand (and more importantly Daph’s) well. “The ‘Itty Bitty Titty Committee’ says they aren’t much to look at, though.”
“Shut up,” Daph scoffed before reaching over and cupping one of Holly’s breasts while gently sliding her thumb across her nipple. The lemur shuddered with an excited giggle that did more to wake her up than anything. “I wanna thee your boobth at all times, okay? Don’t talk shit about my favorite titties.”
“F-Fine,” Holly said with a shudder.

“Good.” Daph nodded curtly and pinched Holly’s nipple before letting go, watching her wife squirm with a smirk. She glanced down at her own chest and held one of her breasts in her palm. “I used to be pretty thmall, too. I dunno where the fuck these came from.”
“Well,” Holly said, holding up her hands, “giving birth six times might’ve had something to do with it.”
“True,” Daph said with a nonchalant shrug. “Guess we’ll see what number theven does.”
Holly rolled over on her side and gazed at Daph with a dreamlike, hazy smile on her face. Daph stared back, knowing that Holly had a habit of examining things for a long time before saying anything.

“Y’know what I like?” Holly finally said. She reached up and touched Daph’s nose, which made her instinctively flinch and sniff. “When you smile like that, when you’re being a smartass, your nose does this little wiggle. Like even your face is feeling proud of itself.”
“It does?” Daph blinked, reaching up to touch her nose. “I didn’t even know that.”
“Why would you?” Holly chuckled. “It’s cute.”
Daph huffed bashfully and scratched the side of her face as an excuse to look away. Holly liked when she did that, too, but thought embarrassing her too much at once might make her short-circuit.
“Yeah, well…” Daph trailed off after composing herself and gazed down at Holly. “Y’know what I like?”
“What?”
“I like that you thleep with the covers pulled up right to your chin like thomebody tucked you in.” Daph smiled and held out her hand in a dainty gesture and said in a mock ‘refined’ voice, “Like you’re a little princess.”
“I just get cold,” Holly said defensively as she yanked the sheets back up to her chin.

“You’re always cold,” Daph said with sly smile (just as she noticed the slight twitch in her nose). She slipped under the covers and pulled Holly as close as she still could, then tucked her legs in between the lemur’s knees before wrapping an arm across her chest. “It’th why I always gotta warm you back up.”
Holly squirmed in place in Daph’s grip, burying her face in her hands as she did. Daph planted a kiss on the back of her neck before letting her go.

“Y’know what I like?” Holly said after tossing her hair out of her face and regaining her composure. She searched with a leg under the covers for Daph’s tail and tucked it between her paws. “I like that when you’re cold, you just sorta pick your tail up and hold it for a while until you warm up again.”
“Thith fuckin’ thing,” Daph sighed as she pulled her tail from between Holly’s paws and reached behind her to grab it with her hand. “It’th got a mind of its own, I thwear to God.”

“’Sweah ta Gawd?’” Holly repeated in an exaggerated copy of Daph’s accent.
“You thound like my mom,” Daph snorted. “I don’t thound like that. Mine’s lower. Like, ‘Thwear ta Gawd.’ Like that.” Holly nodded, but couldn’t tell the difference.
“’Eeeyy, I’m walkin’ here,’” she continued, putting on a hardened scowl. “’Fuggedaboutit! This is New Yoak.’”
“Y’know why nobody maketh fun of Philly? Huh?” Daph said, poking Holly in the chest. “Because you don’t have nothin’ there, that’s why.”
“We’ve got…Quakers. The Liberty Bell.” Holly shrugged. “New York has…giant piles of trash?”
“And me,” Daph said, jabbing a thumb into her chest.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Holly smirked. She sat up on her elbows high enough to kiss Daph before flopping back down.

“Y’know what I like?” the squirrel said after a short moment of comfortable silence. “I like your tail.”
“Why? It’s like twice my height and gets caught in doors all the time.” Holly glanced to the end of the bed as she raised her tail above the edge like a huge, black-and-white caterpillar peeking up from the floor. It wasn’t under the covers. It was never under the covers.
“But you can do thtuff with it,” Daph gasped. “You can like…carry shit and hold open doors and pick stuff up off the ground. And it moves really cool, like a snake or somethin’.” She rolled her eyes and pointed at her backside with her thumb. “Mine can’t do anything but sit there and fuckin’ twitch sometimes.”

“Y’know what I like?” Holly giggled to herself while sinking lower beneath the sheets. “I like that you hate getting it wet.” Daph gritted her teeth and grabbed a clump of her own hair.
“Cauthe it taketh like four hours to dry, babe,” Daph growled through her teeth, which only made Holly laugh even harder. “When it’th wet, I gotta drag it around on the floor like a dead body!”
“I know, I know,” Holly said, reaching over to pat Daph on the arm while still snickering. “I get it, it’s just funny.”
“Y’know what I like?” Daph said, poking Holly back. “I think it’th funny that you make little ‘Eeehhhhh’ soundth whenever you gotta put in contacts.”

“I hate stuff getting too close to my eyes,” Holly huffed, clawing at the air with her fingers. “It’s why I wear my glasses all the time, I just…ugh, I hate it. I hate it.” She shook her head at the ceiling and sighed. Looking over at Daph, she found her wife grinning ear-to-ear at her while laughing deep in her throat.
“Y’know what I like?” Holly said, reaching up to touch the side of Daph’s face. “I don’t know if it’s because of your teeth, but you always smile so huge. You never smile a little bit, it’s always as big as your mouth can go. I can probably count your teeth every time you laugh.”
“Y’know what I like?” Daph said as she laid back down on her side and let her right arm rest between them. “I like that whenever I tell you you’re cute, you jutht kinda wiggle and hide your face, like you can’t handle it.” She leaned closer and looked her in the eyes before saying in a deliberate voice, “It’th really, really cute.”

“Stop it!” Holly cried while doing exactly what her wife described. Her voice rose an octave on the first syllable before being muffled in her palms. Daph chuckled as she pulled one of Holly’s hands away from her face and kissed the back of it before winding their fingers together. The lemur wiggled under the covers a little farther, her head resting on the bottom half of the pillow while her paws extended off the mattress.
“I like when you pass out over the covers at night,” Holly said, her voice muffled against the bed. “Because then I get to tuck you into it.”
“I like pretending to already be athleep so you do that more often,” Daph said with another smirk. “Y’know what I like? I like how thkinny you are because I can pick you up.”
“Y’know what I like?” Holly fell silent a while, blinking up at Daph with her wide, expressive eyes. “That you never lie to me. Even about little things.”

Daph took hold of Holly’s extended arm and gently pulled her closer while she shuffled forward until the two of them were almost nose-to-nose.
“I like how thmart you are,” Daph whispered, touching her mouth to Holly’s forehead, but not kissing her yet. “I like that I can athk you anything and you always know the answer. I don’t worry about thtuff as much.”
“I like how much you like yourself,” Holly whispered back. She reached up to trail her fingers down Daph’s shoulder, the smooth texture of her fur catching slightly against her nails. “I’m not…I’m not really very good at that.”

“You should be,” Daph said with a voice so low Holly felt it more than heard it. “But y’know, I can jutht love you twice as much until you’re ready to do it yourself.” Daph wrapped her arms around Holly’s shoulders and squeezed. The lemur took a moment to swallow the lump in her throat and took a few breaths to compose herself, all while Daph held her by the shoulders and hooked one of her legs in between Holly’s at the knee.

“What time is it now?” she asked, trying to look up over Daph’s shoulder, but the squirrel pinched one of her ears and dragged her head back down to the bed.
“Doethn’t matter,” she mumbled. “Call outta work.”
“What should I tell them?”
“That you’re busy.”
“With what?”
“Bein’ gay.” Daph smiled against Holly’s arm as she laughed.
“I can’t come in, I got Gay.”
“It’th a full time job.” Daph pulled away just far enough to look up into her face. “Theriously, you can tell ‘em I got sick or thomething. That you had to take me to the OB or whatever.”

“Mmmmmaybe,” Holly said hesitantly, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “But I should probably keep all my time off for when the big day happens.”
“Boo, fuck that,” Daph huffed.
“We do need money to keep you fed,” Holly said, raising her eyebrows. “I’m not sure if anybody explained that to you.”
“Whatever,” Daph sighed. “Money ith bullshit.”

“True.” Holly paused and waited for Daph to look at her again. “I forgot something.”
“What?”
“Y’know what else I like?” Holly smiled before pulling the sheets down to Daph’s waist and caressing her palm, fingers down, over the dome shape rounding out from the squirrel’s middle. “I like her.”

Daph squirmed at the sensation and smiled, her grin as wide as it always ways. She reached down and pressed Holly’s hand deeper into her belly, as if trying to get her to reach inside to touch their daughter still nestled in the womb. Tufts of her white belly fur rose up over Holly’s fingers, like she was sinking her hand into soft grass. She wasn’t yet very far along, only a few months, but Holly was in love with the little lump in her wife’s stomach, especially while it was still small enough to cup in one hand. She’d seen pictures of Daphodille at full term with her past surrogacies and Holly wasn’t quite ready for that.

They both shared a long and quiet look at Daph’s belly before they looked up at one another again, almost simultaneously. Daph put on a disaffected frown and rolled her eyes with a shrug.
“Eh, she’th okay.”

“Just okay?” Holly giggled. “No big deal?”
“Well y’know, she jutht got here,” Daph said as she stroked the side of her belly. “I don’t know her too well.”
“She’s my favorite new neighbor,” Holly said. So far, her hand hadn’t left Daph’s bump. She simply turned her hand over to gently rub it from the side. “Her landlord’s kind of a bitch, though.”
“I like the day she moved in,” Daph said, smiling with her teeth slightly apart, her tongue just peeking through. “That wath pretty nice.”

Holly smiled, but something faltered behind her eyes. Daph’s expression fell as she watched Holly shuffle uncomfortably in bed and glance away. The baby had been planned, of course, but Holly couldn’t help but still feel uneasy thinking of herself as the ‘father.’ Daph bit her tongue and tried not to swear at herself for saying something stupid and quickly attempted to change the subject.
“What do you want her to call you?” Daph asked, picking up Holly’s head to look her in the eye. “We can’t both be ‘Mom.’”
“Well…um…” Holly’s eyes flicked away in thought before glancing back down at Daph’s baby bump and smiling again. “I…I always liked ‘Mama.’”
“Is that what you called your mom?” Daph asked. Holly nodded.
“Or even ‘Mommy.’ For a little while, at least. I don’t really care.” She reached down to put her fingers to Daph’s belly again, which she was tall enough to do without needing to bend over. “I kind of want her to decide on her own. I want to see what she comes up with.”

“Even if it’th something weird?”
“Of course,” Holly smiled again, her face brightening as she brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “I don’t care if she calls me ‘Mee-Maw,’ I’ll be her ‘Mee-Maw.’”
“’Mee-Maw,’” Daph repeated with a shudder. “Jesuth.”
“What about you? What should she call you?”
Daph thought for a moment, looking aside with a frown while Holly busied herself fawning over her wife’s tummy. Daph snorted at her own upcoming joke, then tucked her chin far back into her neck and puffed her lips out in a ridiculous expression.

“’Ey, bitch,’” she said in a comically low voice. Holly immediately burst into a fit of laughter, rolling onto her back while burying her face in her hands. “’Yo bitch, where’th my binky?’” Daph continued.
“’Read me a bedtime story, bitch,’” Holly added in between fits of laughter. “Christ. She’s your daughter, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“I’ll watch my mouth when she’th born,” Daph shrugged as she rolled onto her back and looked down at the small hill rising from her stomach. “She can’t hear me yet, though.”
Holly slid closer and tucked her head into the crook of Daph’s shoulder, who then automatically wrapped her arm around Holly. The lemur wrapped her thighs around one of Daph’s legs while, even further beneath them, their tails wound tightly together.

“When will you start to feel her?” Holly asked, resting her palm on Daph’s middle.
“I already do,” she said. “A little bit. Jutht little flutters.”
“You do?” Holly shot up and stared wide-eyed down at Daph, who shook her head before pulling her back down.
“Babe, it’th so light right now I can barely even tell,” she explained. “The only reathon I can feel it thith early is ‘cause I’ve been pregnant before.”
“So I wouldn’t be able to feel anything,” Holly sighed, disappointed as she stroked a circle around Daph’s bump.
“Thorry,” she shrugged while playing with Holly’s hair. “I’ll let you know when you can.”
“I’ll just have to keep checking every day, then.” Holly tapped her fingers against the squirrel’s stomach, as if the baby would tap back in response. “Y’know what I like?”

“What?”
“Doing this.” Holly sat up a little and violently shuffled her hand over Daph’s belly, mussing her fur from lying down flat to standing high up.
“Thankth,” Daph responded with a flat voice.
“I like to smooth it back down,” Holly sighed as she gently began combing Daph’s belly fur back down with her fingers. While stroking her fur in comfortable silence, she said again in a quieter voice, “Y’know what else I like?” Holly looked up at Daph with a frown. “…I like that you’ve done this before. That you aren’t scared.”

“Nah, pregnancy ith easy,” Daph shrugged while squeezing Holly closer to her. “It’th…uh…it’th everything after I’m worried about. That’th gonna be new to me.”
“Well, you won’t be alone,” Holly smiled with a comfortable sigh. “We’ll be scared together.”
“I’ve had babieth before,” Daph said with a sigh as she put her hand beside Holly’s on her belly. “But I’ve never like…had a baby, y’know?”

“We probably won’t screw it up too bad,” Holly said. She took her hand off Daph’s bump and stroked her chest instead. “I know you won’t.”
“Well I know you won’t,” Daph countered.
“Maybe we’re both right,” Holly shrugged.
“When she thtarts coming,” Daph said with a smirk, “I want a sign that sayth ‘No Boys Allowed’ on the delivery room door.”
“We can do that,” Holly chuckled. She closed her eyes again and nuzzled her face deeper into Daph’s shoulder, the dusty scent of her fur, like a warm blanket, almost enough to put her back to sleep.

For a long time, the pair of them lay on the bed in silence, each taking turns to cradle Daph’s growing belly and their daughter inside, not quite ready to meet the world, but already loved enough to last a lifetime. Holly imagined that, at any moment, she’d hear Daph’s light snoring again as she drifted off back to sleep, but she never did. She lay there just as silent and hopefully just as content as Holly was.

“Y’know what I like?” Holly asked in a soft voice after the long quiet. “…Now. Everything right now.” She took in the moment like breathing in fresh, mountain air. Relaxing in bed with her wife, her favorite person in the world, with their unborn baby just a few inches beneath her hand, Holly meant it when she said, “This is…the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“Y’know what I like?” Daph asked. Without waiting for a reply, she pulled Holly closer and kissed the top of her head. “You.”
“Y’know what I like?” Holly patted her wife’s bulging stomach. “Our baby.”

“Me too.” Daph touched her belly, then entwined her fingers with Holly’s, the two of them cradling their daughter together.

Seconds later, the clock hit 9:30 and the digital alarm chimed out in a deafening pattern of electronic beeps that made the couple suddenly jump.
“Fuuuu-huuuck,” Daph groaned at the ceiling as she pulled away from Holly and slapped the snooze button hard enough to nearly break the clock in half. “Just like ten goddamn more minuteth,” she grumbled as she fell back to her pillow.
Holly turned on her side and pulled Daph close until they were eye to eye, the curve of the squirrel’s belly pressing against the lemur’s flat stomach. With a smirk, Holly rolled over onto her back, taking Daph with her until she was lying on top of her.

“Y’know what I think?” she said, quietly. “I think maybe I am feeling it this early in the morning after all.”
Daph grinned in Holly’s face and sat up, straddling her thighs across her wife’s hips. Her bump hung just low enough to touch the lemur’s stomach and Holly took advantage of that to stroke it before moving her hands to Daph’s thighs.

“Y’know what?” Daph purred. “I think I like that.”