AN: Hi everyone; this is a collection of Kink Meme fills -- or at least the few I can post -- and will feature a lot of Viral, but who knows? Otherwise characters and content will be all over the place. Enjoy!

xxxxxx

First is a budding romance involving saucy!Anne and old-fashioned, professional!Viral aboard the Chouginga. I'm about to get Harlequin on your ass.

Rated PG-13

Anne threw back her covers in defeat. She sat up in the darkness and raked her fingers through thick blonde curls. Three hours of tossing and turning, and she was more agitated than ever. Fine – if her brain refused to shut off for sleep then she wasn't going to fight it any longer. She groped through the hamper for a pair of lounge pants. Anne was halfway out the door when she decided to toss a flimsy kimono-style wrap over her tee shirt; the ship was cool during the night settings, and she was very obviously not wearing a bra.

The cabin door dilated without a sound and she padded into the dim hallway, suitably covered in case any drunken Grapearl trainees were still prowling. Anne would be well within her rights to demerit public disorder at this time of night, but she knew a gang of rowdy flyboys tended to forget seniority when a pair of breasts were around, especially if the breasts were attached to a pretty young woman alone on the deck.

Anne sneered; she did not have the patience for that now. Luckily ship discipline had been cracking down on that kind of behavior, so she likely wouldn't meet anyone on her walk aside from cleaning bots or a few officers burning the midnight oil.

Well, maybe just one officer. Anne was grateful no one was there to see her blush. If she were honest with herself, she'd admit it was that one officer who was making her so restless, and her decision to go for a walk might have something to do with his habit of patrolling the ship at night. He rarely slept. Anne pulled the silky top around her and smiled ruefully. At least they had something in common.

xxxxxx

She had seen beastmen before, of course, and for the early part of her life Viral had been like a distant but doting uncle: the vague memory of a friend of a friend of the family. Yet even then she knew this beastman was special, that Viral visiting her house was a source of envy. None of her classmates could boast of having the most important and prestigious member of Genome's cloned army give them personal horsey rides. And he'd been on television, though that hadn't meant as much to Anne. A lot of mommy's and daddy's friends were in the news.

Even back then she'd been an outspoken, outgoing little girl. Her mother said she took after her uncle, but Anne thought she took after all the Black Siblings, really – even quiet Aunt Kinon wasn't so demure she wouldn't strap a few bombs to herself. So no one had been surprised when Anne entered the space academy after graduating from school.

She'd been in training for several months before she came across the once-familiar face of her highest commander. They hadn't met in years, and Anne had all but pushed him to the back of her mind. He'd seemed surprised to see her at first, and in truth Anne was a little surprised herself. She knew on a logical level that Viral hadn't shown signs of growing old and he likely never would, but it was still jarring that they now appeared to be the same age. He didn't offer any special treatment – not that Anne would have expected any – but neither did he pretend they were strangers, and whenever they met he was sure to inquire about her assignments or family. It wasn't much, but those moments made her as proud as when he used to carry her on his shoulders.

They came in contact more often as her training progressed, and Anne had the opportunity to observe his leadership firsthand. She liked to be pleasantly surprised, and while she was learning most of her officers were far from perfect – including the unfortunate truth that some officials had been promoted beyond their ability due to a connection with Simon – it became clear to Anne that Viral did everything to earn his position.

To some he was too focused, too strict and aloof. She always rolled her eyes at their comments; they didn't know him like she did. Anne had seen the feral gleam in his eye at the prospect of battle. She had also had seen his more gentle side. He was fair nearly to a fault, and on a few occasions had shown moments of real kindness that would be rare to find in anyone, much less the over-serious Viral. Anne locked those moments away in her chest, returning to them when her workday had been especially frustrating.

The better she knew him, the more she was proud of him – not to be connected to someone famous, but proud to serve with him. This was how she imagined the flagship when she joined as an idealistic recruit. She wanted to earn his respect back, both from Viral the leader and from just Viral, who had shown he demanded a quality and decency from himself that were unrelated to his job. And he --

She flushed again. It was hard to say when he had gone from fond memory to friend to something more. He confused her. Anne tried to puzzle out if it was his shorter hair, the new uniform, or something else that was beginning to make her clumsy and stupid in his presence. But she finally had to accept that it wasn't Viral who had changed. She had. She wasn't a child any longer. Anne wanted the things a woman wanted.

For a while she tried to suppress the way her heart fluttered around him, but those feelings were much harder to ignore once the dreams began. What began as a few tame fantasies – Viral congratulating her, holding her hand, telling her how he'd always really felt – swiftly grew more carnal. She would awake from her night time encounters breathless and overheated, and knowing they were totally inappropriate. He wouldn't see her as anything but a girl, not then.

So she kept her head down and worked her way to full pilot status, focused on inter-planetary diplomacy, she got a job on the Chouginga Dai-Gurren, and she stalked the hallways after dark, all to …what? To mumble and trip over herself when she saw Viral, to ramble sleeplessly when she didn't? Anne bit her lip. Damn, maybe she was just a child.

xxxxxx

She wandered as she thought, but after so many restless nights her legs could carry her by habit. Anne walked down a well-known path, following a hallway that funneled into the main bridge.

This was the showpiece of the Chouginga. Utilitarian walls of burnished steel opened wider, and one side was replaced by a massive sheet of glass three stories high and a hundred feet long. It was more than a window: the grand hallway looked out into space. The ship's florescent bulbs that provided the artificial cycle of day and night were absent here – the only illumination was the light of a hundred million suns.

Anne faced the abyss and pressed her hand against the cool wall. She liked to come here when she was troubled. An unbroken view of the universe never failed to make her problems feel small, to make her feel small. She sighed and let her mind focus on the distance. Each tiny speck her eyes rested on was a fiery giant, light over a thousand years old from impossibly far away. When she was a little girl she'd liked to peer as hard as she could at the spaces between the stars. It was like looking at forever.

A polite cough startled Anne from her thoughts. Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised; this was what she was hoping for, wasn't it? She knew it was him even before straightening herself and turning away from the glass.

Viral tread noiselessly across the tile. The starlight had drained the color from him, changing his blue uniform to black and bleaching his skin and hair a ghostly white, so that his face seemed to hover like a moon. The stark contrast suited him, Anne thought, and she wondered if she looked to same to him, or if Viral's cat-slitted pupils – now almost perfectly round – saw the darkness in ways she couldn't imagine.

"You're up rather late, Miss Littner." He stopped a few feet away and folded his oversized hands behind him.

"Yes, sir. I haven't been sleeping well lately. I like to come here to think."

Viral nodded and didn't press her for explanations. "I'm the same way." He turned to face the glass as if to prove his point. "It's good for a quiet moment no matter how busy the ship gets elsewhere." Anne loved it when he spoke quietly, especially in the moments when he shared a private word with her. The usually military harshness dripped away from his voice and it was low, soothing. But now he seemed content to stand with her in silence and enjoy the view.

Anne admired the view as well, cutting her eyes to the side to study his profile. It might have been easier to ignore the attraction if he'd been a bit less youthful and more like her other officers. He would have to be handsome, damn him. If he'd been less graceful with his long limbs and wide shoulders that tapered to a slender waist – too wild to be delicate, too slender to be brutish. Blood rushed from her head as she followed the curve of his spine.

Viral, oblivious, gazed through the window, and Anne wished for the courage to say anything that would keep this from becoming yet another missed chance. She couldn't have asked for a better opportunity. They were here, alone, what could go wrong? Well, a lot of things could go wrong, but as Anne took another glance at the endless spread of space, all those potential mistakes and backfires suddenly seemed rather insignificant.

"You can call me Anne," she whispered. "Now that we aren't on duty. I'd like it if you called me Anne, sir."

"Well, then you don't need to call me 'sir,' Miss … Anne." Sharp teeth flashed, far from the snarl his underlings were used to seeing. She smiled back at him.

"Viral. I'm glad we ran into each other tonight. I-I'd been hoping to speak with you again." Viral turned to give her full attention, inclining his head politely. She shrank a bit under his scrutiny, but it was too late to go back. "It's just, you've been such a good friend to me since I enrolled. I don't think I ever properly thanked you, or told you how much it means to me. How much I've come to respect you."

Viral's grin faltered. He'd probably expected the formal conversation they usually shared, and it was obvious he wasn't used to talking about feelings, at least not positive ones. "You're welcome. I am also thankful we had the chance to become more familiar. I've enjoyed watching you grow into a model diplomat. You've come a long way professionally, but," his smile lifted again, "I also enjoy our time together outside of work. Like now."

"That's what I hoped. I want you to think of me like this," she gestured to herself, ignoring the pajamas, "because even though you knew me when I was younger, this is how I've come to know you. I'd like to think we can meet in the middle now, as two adults." Anne could kick herself for her awkwardness. She kept returning to the stiff, 'ambassador' voice out of habit, and it was only maintaining the barrier between them. Why couldn't she come out and say what she meant? "What do you think of relationships between personnel?" Okay. That was blunt.

"Ah. The truth comes out," Viral arched his brows. "This is why you're up at such an hour." Anne stared at her feet, confirming his suspicions. She was worried about a young man. Something lurched in his gut, and for a moment he had the urge to lie in his answer. But that was ridiculous. "There is no policy forbidding it. There are several married couples aboard. I only ask that parties involved use good judgment and don't do anything that might damage … that might negatively impact their duties." He looked away. The reassuring smile he'd attempted failed.

Anne shortened the distance between them. "And … have you ever been involved with a woman on the job?"

He started at the voice that was suddenly much closer. "Involved? No, I have never been- no. Most of the time I'm too busy with work to even consider that. There's always something else that needs attention first, and then something else, and so on." Viral paused thoughtfully. "I guess most of my coworkers can tell," –You don't know the half of it, thought Anne– "because I can't remember ever being approached on the matter."

Then would you know if it was happening now? "I see." She could feel the warmth emanating from him. Anne tilted her head back to look him in the face. He had seemed impossibly tall when she was a girl. He was still tall. In the half-darkness his features were softened, his razor teeth hidden; he could have been like any other man. Then a passing star reflected in his eye with a flash of cold yellow-green, like the chemical glow from a sodium lamp.

Anne waited to feel a shiver of revulsion at the inhuman shine. She waited snap out of it, to come to her senses, but her first thought was of opals and her heart only beat faster.

She steeled herself. Grow a pair of ovaries, girl. "Well, what about me?"

Viral made no response. He stared down at her so blankly that for a moment Anne thought she only imagined asking her question aloud, and he was still waiting. "You," he said at last. His visible eye blinked several times.

Oh no oh please oh no… she pleaded silently.

"I, I -during our friendship, you should know... I wasn't using my rank to pursue an ulterior motive, that is to say, I don't mean to take advantage… dammit." He sputtered to a stop, unsure how to continue. Viral's confident stance narrowed as he began to shift his weight nervously from foot to foot. He dropped his hands to his sides, and then plucked at the collar of his uniform.

Anne watched in astonishment as burning spots bloomed on his cheeks. Until now she'd had a very clear image of Viral: pale, sharp features, carelessly disarrayed hair – so blond it was nearly white – the lacquered-on frown and the chilly, disinterested cat's eye. He'd been the very picture of reserve. She'd seen the attitude a hundred times in other retired military officers, and she'd always taken it for granted. It was crumbling before her eyes, revealing the fluster and poorly-hidden shyness of a much younger man. At last, something she knew how to handle.

"You couldn't like me that way, or you don't think I'm pretty? You can be honest." She lowered her lashes and let the kimono top drift loose. Anne wasn't shy about using her generous assets.

"No! You're very pretty, a –ah– lovely young lady! And very talented!" Viral fidgeted some more. "But I don't want you to think it was my secret intention to lure you into such a relationship. A romantic relationship." He must have been a bright crimson under better light.

Anne raised a hand to her mouth when she could no longer hide her smile. She had never expected him to be so … normal. Cute, even. Serious, regal, severe, yes. But cute? Watching him struggle through his own embarrassment strengthened her resolve. This was fun.

"Those are my intentions." She watched him redden further, "Do you object, sir?"

Viral swallowed. "No, Miss Littner."

"Excellent." Anne took one of his long fingers, and he opened his hand to her. Her hand barely covered his palm. Viral watched for her cues, but he began to relax as she stroked across the rough lines of his skin. She felt the tension between them change from anxiety to something more physical. It seemed she would have to take the initiative at first, but Anne found she didn't mind the surprising turn of events. Actually, she looked forward to exploring this amusing new side of her captain.

Anne twined her arm around his, leaning her head against his shoulder, feeling the rise and fall of Viral's breath. He was so close she could take in his scent: crisp soap and something more exotic beneath. She might have been imagining the animal flavor – for all Anne knew this was how all men smelled. She searched her memory for the handful of fumbling encounters in flight school, but those boys hardly qualified. She'd already forgotten them.

A tentative hand rested on her waist, and she felt his chin press against her hair. God, he was warm. Before she could stop it, a particularly dirty dream-image flashed across her mind. This was really not the time. She already had him in her arms; wasn't that enough? Her subconscious jumping to that in the same minute seemed like overkill, although 'that' was quite nice, and so was … oh, good grief. The captain would probably have a heart attack if she tried anything naughty this soon, but there was something else she'd been dreaming of ...

Viral tensed as she turned to face him. He must have picked up something in her body language. Surely he heard the hammering of her pulse -- Anne could hear little else. Her breath hitched and her mouth went dry. She didn't envy guys who had to make the first move.

Before her courage could desert her, she leaned forward and thought, this is going to ruin our working relationship.

Her lips pressed against his in a quick peck, and she felt seventeen again, like the girl he thought she was. Anne flushed. That was not how she had imagined their first kiss.

The beastman was still frozen in surprise, but before he could stumble out of reach Anne grabbed his shoulders and kissed him like the woman she knew she was. There was a warm exhalation on her cheek and wide, long-fingered hands squeezed her hips, pulling her forward. Much better.

She teased his mouth open, her fingers tangled in his hair. When her tongue swept over his teeth, she discovered that apart from feeling a little different, they didn't change her technique. Viral's grip drifted down to cup her backside, and his boldness earned an appreciative sigh from Anne. Her thin pajama top pressed against his chest as she embraced him. She could count the ribs rising in time with his breath, feel the muscles shifting along his sides and back. That was the last clear thought she had for a while.

Her world faded into sensation: fluttering hands, mouths, bodies. She found herself pressed between Viral and the clear barrier that shielded them from the black. For a moment Anne barely registered the wall, and she was tumbling, tumbling through space. She didn't care. Anne had the hard planes of his torso to secure her; her fists dug into his shoulder blades and nothing bad could reach her. Claws raked down her thighs and back, pressing just enough to tickle through her clothes. She shuddered as an insistent heat flared to life between her legs.

Anne surfaced for air with a gasp. That had been intense, almost too much. Any farther and she'd be past the point of no return, and Anne wasn't sure she wanted to end up on the floor a mere half hour after her confession. There would be plenty of time for that.

She grinned up at Viral and panted, "Sure you weren't planning this all along? You're a natural."

"Or maybe just a quick study." He tells jokes now? I've created a monster.

"Either way, I probably ought to be heading back home soon. We can't have people saying I took advantage of my poor, helpless captain."

Viral tilted his head. "We can't?" His hair was even more unruly than normal, and a faint blush lingered across his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. It looked fetching on him; she'd have to encourage it often as possible. Anne flung her arms around him and delivered a kiss that had him rumbling deep in his throat. She growled back. He chuckled before pulling away to nuzzle along her jaw.

"Hmm… maybe tomorrow." Anne smirked and ran her fingers through his bangs. Viral leaned into her touch like a housepet. While she pet him, he straightened the silky top that had half-fallen off her, and his claws came to rest in her curls.

"Until then, sleep well Miss Littner," Viral murmured into her palm.

"I think I will." She caught him by the chin and pulled his not-so-dangerous mouth down to hers, "and it's 'Anne'."

"Anne." He smiled against her lips, then gave her ear a farewell nip. "Good night."

She pulled away reluctantly and headed back toward her personal quarters. Before she left the great hall, Anne turned to take a final look at his angular silhouette. She probably still wouldn't get much sleep tonight, but she didn't doubt that the morning would be much brighter than usual.

xxxxxx

He watched her disappear into the darkness, but savored one last glance at the gently curving figure he previously hadn't allowed himself to notice. Viral sighed. In the last hour he'd completely forgotten whatever he planned on doing the rest of the night. There was too much to think about to think of anything at all, so he let his feet carry him aimlessly around the ship, his mind elsewhere.

Viral didn't know how long he walked, but he finally found himself on the captain's perch high above the bridge. The controls below were dark aside for the blinking of a few automated functions, and even the most enthusiastic officers wouldn't arrive for another few hours. Maybe by then he'd have regained some feeling of normality, but at the moment he wasn't sure if he wanted to feel normal, or if he should.

Viral leaned back in his chair. He had a full view of the bridge and beyond. Ahead of him, deep in space, rainbow nebulae spun in the light of a hundred million suns – incredibly beautiful and absolutely silent.