Cornerian Joggers

	It’s a warm but cloudy summer morning. Anon thought it would be a good idea to go out for a run early to avoid the summer heat, but the humidity in the air made running more than half a mile almost as bad as running under the midday sun.  As he panted, anon decided to just catch his breath and walked into his local convenience store, he couldn’t be farther than a couple of blocks from his apartment and decided to get a quick refreshment before going back to his apartment and continue applying to jobs.

	Walking into the store, anon was greeted by the familiar two tone bell and a “hey, morning man” from the male husky clerk standing behind the counter. Anon just gave him a quick look and feint smile to acknowledge him, and proceeded to walk towards the refrigerated beverages on the other side of the store. There were many options as far as juices, from sweet to supposedly “natural”, there were also plenty of caffeine based drinks like coffee, soda, and an assortment of energy drinks in their provocatively colored containers. Anon just wanted to find water in this sea of sugary and caffeinated drinks.

	As he grumbled at his lack of options for just water, he heard the same ding-dong and greeting he had just heard a moment earlier but payed it no attention. Just as anon found a water container that suit his needs, he opened the refrigerator door, squatted down,  and grabbed a large silvery but transparent container with blue waters that spelled “water.” Anon then heard some footsteps behind him, and before he turned back he heard a very appealing yet confident voice of a female.

“Mind if you hand me one of those too, buddy?”

	Anon cocked an eyebrow and turned around with a confused but curious look on his face, wanting to look at the owner of this subtly sultry voice. As he turned around, that eyebrow dropped, and anon had to work hard to prevent his jaw from dropping. In front of him was a slightly short yet busty female Lynx, with a very attractive and toned body. She was wearing a grayish-black sport’s bra and matching running shorts that ended around her upper thighs. The top managed to contained her breasts and the space between it and the shorts showcased her abs that were noticeable underneath the white patch of fur that went from her snout down to her inner thighs.  The outside of her large pointy ears had a more darker and blackish fur that complemented the pattern around her forehead, and the rest of her body was covered in a light caramel fur with dark brown spots. The only other noticeable things about her was the large gold earring on her left ear and the gorgeous, deep ocean blue eyes that gleamed back at Anon with a complimentary smile.

“Thanks!” said the young Lynx as she took the water from Anon’s hands, turned around, and headed towards the counter.

	He hadn’t even noticed that he had reached out to give her the water container, and stared stupidly at her butt, hips, and short furry tail swaying from side to side as they moved farther away from him and closer towards the counter. The alluring Lynx placed passed a card through a scanner on the front counter.

“Thanks Nick! I’ll see you later!” she said to the clerk as she walked out of the door, Anon slowly walking up to the register, keeping his gaze glued to the Feline as she turned a corner and disappeared into the streets.

“Excuse me but do you know her?” asked anon to Nick, the clerk.
“Yeah man, that’s Miyu Lynx, you know, the pilot from Star Fox” replied the clerk.

Anon raised another eyebrow, looked out the door one more time and just let out a slightly drawn out and inquisitive “Really?”

“Yeah she lives in some residential complex nearby, she usually shows up every other day coming back from a run around this time.

	Anon had just recently arrived to the Lylat system. He had finished University back on earth, but was not really looking forwards to do anything with his Literature degree, he had just picked something he was good at and seamed easy to finish within the 3 years his college had given him to graduate. He much prefer working temporary odd-jobs, and drifting from one town to the next. This drifting had led him to different corners of the galaxy for the last 2 years, yet anon slowly fell down onto some hard times and found himself almost homeless on some random space port that barely held on to the little order its local government could still enforce.

	One night while having a drink at a local cantina, pondering what to do next and how to find passage off the space port, Anon had met a Cornerian military officer that offered him a solution to his problems. A 2 year service commitment, with one more on ready-reserve status, with the Cornerian military on a new unit composed of a mix of native Lylatians and alien migrants such as Anon. He would be given a yearly salary that payed better than anything Anon had worked in the last 2 years, and on the year he would be asked to stay in Lylat as a reserve he would be given a 1 room apartment, free of charge, to live in by the Cornerian government.

	Anon had no qualms about becoming a mercenary, the last few years he’d come to realize that the only thing keeping the quadrant from plunging into chaos and anarchy were the forces of the various empires, confederations, and interstellar unions that kept the denizens of this side of the galaxy safe from piracy, spatial anomalies, and cosmic horrors. For him this would simply be another odd-job where he would probably gain some new skills that could prove useful if he ever found himself back on some down times as he drifted from system to system. So anon took the Cornerian officer’s offer and accompanied him back to the Lylat system.

	Upon his arrival, anon completed some paperwork at customs and after having it cleared, the military officer told him that he had already been assign a housing unit on a small city in the southern hemisphere of the system’s planetary capital, the ocean world of Corneria. Anon was given a time frame, he was to have a physical at the local hospital, his results would immediately be forwarded and approved or denied by a central processing computer back at the Cornerian Military’s headquarters. If approved anon would just have to wait 5 weeks until he was to ship off to basic training and begin his 2 year stint in this new unit. After the physical a doctor would give him a dietary an exercise plan for him to follow in order to be ready for basic training.

	That physical had been yesterday, and while there was nothing wrong with Anon, he was told to stay away from any substances that were consumed through the respiratory system, and to follow a simple running plan to be prepared for basic training. That’s why anon had been running this morning when he bumped into the luscious Lynx at the convenience store. After finishing his run, he head back home and began browsing the Lylatian Net for to educate himself on the history and composition of the system. It all seemed to be very similar to the dozens of independent star systems Anon had gone through, this one just happened to be run by a Military-Commissariat and had an insane amount of hospitable worlds within its star’s habitable zone. Even those outside the habitable zone had been terraformed one way or another to allow for some level of habitability.  This had led for the Lylatian population, which was composed almost entirely of anthros, to be very large compared to other stellar-states with borders limited to only one or two star systems.

	Still, aside from his upcoming military service, only one thing weighed on anon’s mind. Who was this “Miyu Lynx” he had bumped into earlier and would he meet her again tomorrow or the day after. The clerk at the store had mentioned that she was a pilot for “Star Fox”, which a quick search led Anon to find out that Star Fox was one of the preferred mercenary groups of the Cornerian military. But all Anon found of Miyu was just some archived footage of her at some award ceremony for the Star Fox team after they had help defeat some guy named Andross. Anon wasn’t satisfied with his answers, but he hope that he would see the sexy female again while going out for a run again. Anon really enjoyed “meeting” locals in the different systems he had lived and worked in. Perhaps this Miyu would be his first acquaintance here in Corneria thought anon. He set his alarm for tomorrow, laid down, and drifted to sleep still hoping to catch another glimpse of Miyu on tomorrow’s run.


--

	Two days had passed and Anon was again out on another cloudy warm day, running around the local humid streets early in the morning. He had begun to think that maybe he wouldn’t meet the pretty Lynx again.

“On your right!” shouted a familiar voice to Anon.

	Before he even turned around, the same Lynx from the other day was already passing him, jogging at a much faster pace than anon, and soon leaving him behind. Anon just saw as the Lynx got smaller and smaller as she headed further down the street. This motivated anon, even though he wasn’t the poster child of athleticism, he knew he could do better than this, and he began to pick up his pace to try to close the distance with the Lynx.

	He did not loose sight of her, but he was never quite able to catch up either. And after Anon saw her turn a corner he finally lost track of her.

“maybe next time” Anon thought.

	He was getting very tired now anyways, but decided to give one last push. Anon ran up the hill in front of him, and headed into a small public park, following the path up to 10 foot obelisk that was some sort of monument in the center of the park. As he approached the obelisk, anon began to slow down, finally stopping just short of it, and bending forward and keeping himself from falling by supporting his weight with his hands pressed against his knees.

	Anon panted loudly but slowly. He really pushed himself on this one and forgot to watch his pace, he knew where he was but he felt as though he had spent most of his energy to get here and was not looking forward to the 4 mile walk back. As he looked down at the dirt path, still trying to collect his breath, anon noticed something on the corner of his eyes. It was one of those silvery-translucent water containers the local markets sold. Too tired to look back at the passerby holding it out from behind him, anon took the cue from the stranger and grabbed it, taking a sip from the built-in straw that protruded out of the container. It was a nice, cold, and refreshing sip of water.

	Still too tired to pick himself up however, anon just kept looking at the dirt and trying to regulate his breath.

“T-Thanks...” muttered anon in between breaths.
“Don’t push yourself so hard handsome...” replied the stranger
Anon recognized this voice, it was Miyu’s. He turned around and caught her looking down at him with an almost cocky smirk. Anon almost jolted back up to an upright position, to which Miyu gave back a very subtle chuckle.
“I just… I thought I could catch up to you, you went by so quickly...” replied anon in between breaths.

Miyu smirk turned into a smile.

“Well you could’ve ran after me for the next 10 kilometers and I can guarantee you would have never caught up hon.” said Miyu with an almost sarcastic tone in her voice.

“I can believe that” anon said, “Name’s anon”

	Anon stretched his hand forward for Miyu to shake it, he still wasn’t sure if Lylatians were like humans and greeted new people with a handshake, but in his experience, a lot of humanoid species and cultures did, so there was no shame in trying. Miyu just looked at him with that cocky look of hers and let out another small chuckle.

“Miyu, Miyu Lynx” she said as she grabbed his hand and gave it a very good squeeze. It caught anon slightly off guard but he squeezed back, and was surprised at just how much power Miyu had in her grip. He briefly looked down at the handshake in surprise, Miyu quickly grinning as she noticed.  He nodded in acknowledgment as the pair let go of the handshake.

“So Mr. Anon, you’re obviously not from Lylat, what brings you here?”
“Im just here to start a new job”
“Is running going to be big part of that new job I’ve seen you out here the last couple of days…”
“I think it will be”

“Well...” said Miyu as she started to turn around while keeping eye contact “see if you can keep up with me next time” she said, giving a cute wink at Anon before she started her speedy jog back the way she came. Anon just stood there, perplexed at what just happened, and unable to tell that he was also blushing.

“Wait, did she call me handsome?!” wondered anon with that same stupid look on his face he had  when he first saw Miyu.


--


	Over the next days, Anon continued to do his daily morning runs. Sometimes he would run into Miyu, she would always just ran past him at first, and right when anon thought she’d sped somewhere else, she would show up out of the blue ready to give anon some encouraging words.

“You’re starting to pace yourself better!”
“Try to keep a constant rhythm Anon, even when you’re going up hill”

But Miyu would also tease anon at times during their encounters.

“Is that really the best you can do?”
“You were keeping up with me for once! Too bad I was walking Anon haha”

	But anon kept at it, and he really enjoyed the short encounters with the lovely Miyu, not just because she was an amazing sight with that tight body of hers, but because she was friendly and was pretty much the only he’d met since he got to Corneria aside from Nick, the clerk at the store. The Cornerian Military sent him messages reminding him of the date  he was shipping out (as well as reminding Anon of the penalties should he fail to show up at the transport station).
	Anon was also starting to get better, each day he felt stronger, faster, he had been supplementing his daily runs with some body weight exercises such as crunches and push ups back in his small apartment. With each day, he also was getting closer and closer to keeping up with Miyu. The leads she would have on him during their runs were now only a couple yards instead of a couple of blocks.

	It was now anon’s last week before he was shipping out. All the daily runs seemed easier and easier each day. Anon hadn’t felt in such great condition in a long time, probably since his late teens. He was just getting to the entrance of the park as he noticed his feline friend in the middle of it waving at him. Anon waved back as he noticed Miyu jogging over to where he was.
	The sight was something Anon just couldn’t get used to. Miyu always wore the same style of sports bra with short-shorts on her runs. While the top did a pretty good job of containing Miyu’s “jiggle”, some it was still noticeable thanks to her decent chest size. Today was one of those days were it was cloudy enough for a bit of sunlight to peek through the clouds. Anon loved the sight of Miyu’s caramel fur and how it took in the sunlight, and he really love the way her large blue eyes would look back at him.

“Hey anon,” said Miyu as she got to where Anon was standing “late as always huh?”
Miyu gave him a friendly tap on the arm with the back of her left hand while gving anon that subtle smirk.
“Oh please Miyu, I saw you going up the hill just a minute ago, you also just got here”.

“Heh,” chuckled Miyu, “still beat ya didn’t I Hon’?”
“Hey I don’t know when you left your place, for all I know you’ve been out here for a while” replied anon.
Miyu smiled, and began to walk around anon.
“Then how about a race, human boy?” asked Miyu with that arrogant smirk of hers
“Fine by me, first one to the center of the park” asked anon with a very competitive look in his eyes.

	Miyu just looked at him with a doubtful smirk, but nodded in agreement.
“Ok, on the count of 3, ready?” replied anon, as Miyu walked to his side
“Actually anon I was  think-”
“GO!” said Anon, as he immediately started to run towards the monument in the center of the park, using what little extra time he might have gotten on Miyu, deep down, he knew this was the only way to beat her.

	For once, anon thought he might actually beat her, he’d challenged Miyu to a couple of races before, each time he’d lost by a very wide margin, but maybe today was the day. He was halfway down the way when he caught a glimpse of her just on the corner of his eye. This didn’t look good, she was caught up to him now, and just like every other race, Miyu got there first. Anon stopped and made an exaggerated  sigh in defeat. Miyu just laughed at him.

“Everytime Miyu...” said anon in defeat.
“Oh anon, I’ve told you, don’t push yourself too hard, besides, you didn’t even let me finish back there!”

Anon gave her a confused look.

“What do you mean?”
“I was going to tell you should race me back to my place, there’s something I’d like to show you” said Miyu with a playful tone.
“What is it?” asked anon
“It’s a surprise, duh” said Miyu as she laughed and gave anon a playful punch on the shoulder, “here’s my address...”
Miyu hit a button on her wristband bringing up a cool blue holographic map of the area, with a location marked that Anon recognized, and Miyu’s apartment number highlighted.

“In case you get lost anon, don’t be late, race starts now”

	As Miyu said this, she closed an eye, raised her left hand and blew Anon a kiss. She immediately turned around and began to jog away. Anon was left confused one more time, he had a pretty good idea as to what Miyu meant by surprise though. She had been getting very touchy the last couple of times they’ve met, even going as far as giving him a friendly butt slap on an occasion. They had a good rapport going, and perhaps Miyu wanted to take things further. He definitely felt that neither of them wanted anything serious, and whatever they were about to do was going to be completely casual and with no strings attached. Anon’s mind started to wonder with the possibility, it had been a while since he’d been intimate with someone, and he wasn’t sure one of the girls at the “inn” he’d been staying back in the space port even counted.

	Anon snapped out of it, he didn’t even see Miyu anymore, so he realized he’d better start to make her way to Miyu’s apartment, it wasn’t proper to keep a lady waiting. Anon made a quick stopped at the park’s public sonic shower, steadied himself, and began to walk over to the Lynx’s apartment.