Okay, this is about as polished as I can make it for now. There's a lot
of character building happening in this tidbit here. Washu puts her
foot down on Garrick, Garrick in turn has to put his foot down on Yume,
and Yume is forced to humble herself to get what she wants. Minagi goes
on the defensive on Garrick's behalf, and Yuki comes out of the closet.
If one were to ask Garrick about it, he'd just shrug and say it's been one of those kinds of months...
“I
was worried about this,” Washu sighed after I explained what had
happened in the bath. “I blame myself, really. There were a lot
of signs, but the clearest one of them all was the fact she bit you.
Honestly, I should have done something then.”
“You
can fix this, right?” I said. “I mean I can't be going around
wanting to screw her like an animal every time she shows up.”
“I
could fix it,” Washu admitted. “But really, at this point it's
for the best if you learn how to control it.”
I
blinked. “I can?”
Washu
nodded. “You're right about wanting to 'screw her like an animal'.
Because it's coming from the animalistic part of your brain – the
part that handles all your base desires and needs, including the
desire to have sex and reproduce. Keep that in mind and you should
have no problem in dealing with her.”
I
was a bit astounded that Washu was brushing this aside like that, but
I wasn't going to give up so readily.
“Okay,
yeah, animal side of my brain,” I said a bit sarcastically. “The
primitive part that's separate from the cerebrum. Got it. Still
doesn't help me if I'm in the middle of something and she comes on by
and I start thinking about pinning her to a wall and ripping her
clothes off.”
Washu
snorted. “Kinky, but it sounds nice in an immediate kind of way.
Really, Garrick, it is for the better. Besides, didn't you extoll
over her qualities at one point in time?”
“Aren't
you being something of an enabler here?”
Washu
gave me a sharp, calculating look. “Okay,” she said levelly. “I
will admit, I am kinda rooting for Yume here. But at the same time,
Garrick, just like you push Tenchi to be a leader, I'd like to push
you to fend for yourself without resorting to my help.”
I
fumed for a moment and Washu just kept staring me down. But then I
thought about it for a moment. Washu had been helping me with a lot
of things lately. Granted, it was mostly her own interest to see
what sort of plausible insanity I could cook up if she just turned me
loose on her stockpiles of advanced technology. But even so, a lot
of that was me coming up with inventive ways of working around the
power-gap between me and everyone else here, such as Sun Spark and
Raiden's Toothpick. Not to mention all the other times she's gone
out of her way to not only save my life, but also make sure that I
won't always need intensive medical care if I get 'roughed up' a bit.
“Alright,”
I said slowly, still a little peeved even though I had recognized
that I had developed a nasty sense of entitlement lately. “So I
have to deal with it then. How is this supposed to work between her
and I? I'm not just gonna be some sperm donor.”
“No,
that's not how she was raised,” said Washu. “Believe it or not,
while Yume may view her servants as mere tools, the man she chooses
as a mate is not someone she would trifle with – he's not just
going to be a sperm donor. Think about it, Garrick – intelligence
factors into her criteria, but that's nothing without someone willing
to pass on their knowledge. And besides, she already knows you'd be
a good father figure.”
“Yeah,
I get it...” I sighed as I quit pacing and plunked myself down into
a chair. “Do you think Yume was being serious when she said that
she wouldn't cause any trouble for the other girls?”
“She's
a schemer, not a liar,” Washu replied perfunctorily. “If she
says that she honestly wants to work with your other paramours, then
she will. Don't forget that she comes from a survival-driven people
that band together in packs. Strife in the pack is not a healthy
thing. If anything, she might be good for the makeup of your
household – she'll make sure that everyone toes the line.”
I
blinked at that. “So you're saying she'll be my enforcer? Weird.”
Washu
shrugged. “Not her style, really. She just won't tolerate having
to deal with anyone's crap. Anyhow, I know I said I shouldn't swoop
in to rescue you, but that doesn't mean I can't lend a hand. That
said...” Washu reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of
innocuous looking pills. “Here, swallow these.” she said as she
handed them to me.
“What
are they?” I asked as I looked them over in my palm.
“They'll
suppress her pheromones' reaction with the receptors in your
olfactory nerves. But not completely. You'll still feel a moderate
physical attraction to her – just not an immediate desire to have
sex with her. And it's only good for forty-eight hours. Use that
time to keep her around and decide if you want her to be part of your
family or not.”
“Alright
then,” I grumbled as I popped the pills and swallowed. They had a
candy-like gel coat that made them easy to swallow. A spoon full of
sugar really does help the medicine go down.
“Good
on you,” cheered Washu, but then her expression sobered.
“Honestly, Garrick, I do hope that you two hit it off despite this
bad impression. Yume's actually a good friend of mine – we had a
lot of fun back in our Academy days even though we never really
collaborated much. It'll be nice if we can call each other family
someday.”
“Yeah,
well if we don't click, then we don't click. Otherwise, I'll just
take your word on good faith and give the pint-sized terror the
benefit of a doubt.”
When
I arrived back to Minagi's bedroom suite, it was to an incredibly odd
tableau.
Yume,
bound from her neck to ankles in seemingly endless coils of rope like
a damsel-in-distress from a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon. She
wore an expression of long-suffering patience.
Yuki
and Minagi were on either side of her, both wearing eminently
satisfied smiles.
“Okaaayyyyy,”
I drawled out. “I was expecting a lot, but this was not exactly
one of them.”
“How
so?” asked Minagi coyly.
“Everything
in here is still intact.”
Yuki
laughed and Minagi shook her head, but was smiling regardless.
“After
you left it was like Yume relaxed some,” said Yuki. “Of course,
Minagi and I were still kinda angry with her... we didn't even
realize she wasn't fighting back until we were half-way done tying
her up. She didn't even say anything to stop us. It was kinda
weird.”
“Did
you think I was lying before?” grumbled Yume, “I want to show
good faith on my part. I won't be the one to cause trouble... well,
at least no more than these two are willing to handle.”
I
crossed my arms and gave Yume my patented 'pull the other one' look.
“Cute,”
I said with sarcasm I only half-felt. Really, Yume was an adorable
little spitfire. The trouble was that there were times that she was
just so full of piss and vinegar... But that aside, Minagi and Yuki
were still steamed with Yume, and I wanted answers myself. “Yume,
what the hell happened earlier? I mean, besides the obvious. Why
did you come on to me in such a way that was gonna antagonize me and
my ladies?”
Yume
looked down in shame. “I... stopped taking my inhibitors.”
“Inhibitors?”
I asked. “What do they inhibit?”
“Hormones,
mostly,” Yume said. “You remember what I said about how this all
works? Part of the reason for that is that it saves our ova cells
for when they'll be most useful. You see... my kind's reproductive
system is among the most efficient in the world. We only ever
ovulate after
intercourse, so there is a far greater chance that every one of our
ova will be put to use – it is a rare thing for a female of my kind
to reach menopause.
“To
make sure that we are doing our part, we have a hormone that builds
up in our system over time that drives us to seek out our mate. It's
how we know we're ready – when the desire to find an acceptable
male becomes overwhelming. The act of mating will purge the hormone
from our systems, but it will slowly build up once more, ensuring
that we keep having babies to maintain our population.
“I
am over five-thousand years old and as you know I have yet to take a
mate. When I stopped taking my inhibitors this morning, I didn't
think it would hit me so hard. I only really realized what had
happened after you left, so I took a half-dose of my inhibitors right
away... and then Minagi and Yuki cornered me. The rest you know
about now.”
Well,
that was food for thought.
“So,”
I said thoughtfully, “you just had some kind of insatiable mating
urge overwhelm you, but you're feeling better now.” I gave Yume an
appraising look. “Okay. I think I can accept that... but there's
something that's still bothering me. I'm still wondering exactly why
you suddenly chose me. There has got to be more to this than me just
coming in and derailing things. I get the idea that I may represent
some prime candidate in the primeval sense, but what more is there?
Why me?”
Yume
sighed. “Lady Funaho kept records of you. She noticed that I was
fixated on you, so she let me see some of them... Her recorded
observations about you, the letters that Princess Sasami wrote, and
even some video recordings. You are not just smart. You're
alpha-male material. Not simply because you like to establish
yourself as a leader, but also because you will work with others to
make them better – like how you keep pushing your younger brother
to be a leader himself and how you whipped Yuki into shape.
“The
strongest packs aren't the ones with males and females that seek to
utterly dominate their underlings. In those packs, where the leaders
destroy any that may pose a threat to their position and status, they
only destroy that which would make their pack strong. Such packs are
short-lived and are, in turn, destroyed by stronger packs that foster
leadership in the lower ranks. If this means a young pup will take
the place of an honored leader, then it is not only deemed
acceptable, but the new leader will be groomed by the elder to take
their place.
“So
you see, my interest in you is not simply some perception of status.
Among my people, a good leader amongst the males is also a good
father – someone that teaches the pups, raises and protects them
with care. The Pack is Family, and Family is everything. Do you
think I would want anything less for my children?”
I
gave Yume a hard look. “No, you wouldn't. But what of the male in
question? How he feels about you and your actions towards him?”
“Do
you not want something similar?” asked Yume in return, her look
just as hard as mine. “Look around you! You already have the
beginnings of an excellent pack! You have two highly valuable
females. Minagi is a proven warrior. Yuki, on the other hand, is
too young to mate. However, she is turning into an excellent female
in her own right! Do you think I didn't see how she willingly
underwent her transformation? She did it not only for herself, but
for you! If this is the pack that you are building, then I want in.”
Yume then bowed her head, seemingly in shame. “And I am willing
to humble myself if that is what it takes... I only want the absolute
best for my children.”
Children.
Is that all she really wanted? But the problem there is that from
her perspective, a mate is part-and-parcel with children. I could
honestly appreciate and even honor that, but I still had concerns.
Katherine, any
chance that you can see what her pheromones are doing to me?
Unh!
Replied my tree cheerfully. They're definitely trying to
do a number on you. Washu-chan's remedy is working, though –
nowhere near as many are activating the receptors in your olfactory.
I think those mating hormones of hers are tied to her pheromone
production. If you do make pictures of spring with her, then it will
taper off – she won't produce as many pheromones and you'll be a
little more desensitized.
Who's side are
you on!? I thought back at my
tree in bewilderment as she giggled at my expense. As
attractive as that sounds to my baser self, not right now. I want to
get to really get to know Yume before I decide whether or not to make
her mine... Ugh, no, I mean to accept her...
Really,
it kinda hurt my ego to have that thought. There really is a part of
my mind that wants me to dominate and rule over any and all women
that come my way. Fortunately, it's tempered by my compassion for
their feelings, so at its worst this part of my mind is reduced to
wanting them to submit of their own free will instead of raping
everything in sight.
Katherine,
on the other hand, simply giggled again.
It's okay,
Gar-kun. I know it's kinda tough when your mind is all fuzzy from
Yume-chan's smell. You just wanna gobble them all up for yourself,
don't you?
I rolled my eyes and thought back, You know you aren't helping
much, right?
Katherine giggled once more. In the end, I'm really just another
one of your girls. We just relate on a different level... but on
that level, I'm more than happy to have Gar-kun gobble me up, too!
Om-nom-nom-nom!
I had to keep myself from laughing at that last bit.
So, my women wanted me to 'gobble them up' as Katherine put it. That
may be what the natural man does, but it's not what I am supposed to
do. Granted, I did this with Minagi – she practically threw
herself at me and I obliged her, giving each other comfort in our
sharing of our bodies and hearts.
But now, things between Minagi and I were deeper. She was ready to
start a family, and that meant I had to be a lot more selective in
who I shared my body with, let alone become apart of the family. Add
Yuki into the mix as well...
...Well, if you look deeply enough into historical and religious
texts where good and righteous men had more than one wife, you would
find that he simply didn't make any decisions on the spur of the
moment. He first had to hear what all of his wives' thoughts on a
given matter, and then weigh their opinions with great care before
deciding on a path.
In all reality, this is only common sense no matter how you slice it.
You can't run roughshod over anyone in your family. Everyone's
feelings need to be taken into consideration. Even if you can't
please everyone at once, what is important is that you took the time
to hear them out and gave it an honest try. (In my opinion, this
would be especially true of the children – they're the ones who are
impacted the most by a patriarch's decisions!)
“Minagi?”
I asked.
“I
don't like what she did,” Minagi said thoughtfully, mulling the
situation over in her head. “She's subverted your feelings. That
is not right, even if it is how her people do things.” She then
gave Yume a harsh look. “You should have tried to win his heart
before doing that to him.”
Yume
flinched at Minagi's rebuttal, but said nothing. Her only response
was to lower her head even further.
I
sighed and then looked to Yuki. “What do you think, tiny love?”
Yuki,
for her part, hummed thoughtfully, and suddenly reached out, lifting
Yume's face to her own, and stared deeply into Yume's eyes. Yume
started at the sudden intrusion of personal space, but relaxed
somewhat when she saw that no attack was forthcoming.
“You
don't like being alone, do you?” asked Yuki suddenly, surprising
all of us at once.
“How
can you tell?” Yume
replied sullenly.
“Because
your eyes are just like how mine used to be. I was alone, too...
until Garrick saved my life. Minagi used to be lonely, too. Even
Garrick... I think his loneliness was the worst.”
I
went over and gently nudged Yuki aside, then hunkered down and looked
into Yume's eyes myself. Yuki was right – there was a lot of hurt
hidden in those angry looking eyes, and only the least of it was
fresh from the last few days.
Was
that what this all boiled down to? It would make sense, especially
if Yume really did come from a pack-based society. Being alone all
that time, no one to support her, with only herself fending for
herself... it was a miracle she was as sane as she was.
I
felt a wave of pity for the pint-sized genius, so I looked to Minagi
once more.
“Well,
what do you think?”
Minagi sighed and I could tell that she was honestly struggling with
this. Of course she hated what Yume did to me, but having dealt with
the pain of solitude herself she could also somewhat understand why
Yume would suddenly become so desperate.
Minagi finally gave Yume a sharp look. “Alright... You came from a
place where women are in charge? It's different now. He's the one
in charge. Not you. Not me. Not Yuki-chan. And when he finds a
woman of the Jyurai family to marry, not even she is gonna be in
charge. Garrick is very kind and very lenient... and I can tell he
wants to give you a chance. I don't know for sure if this is your
bite messing with his head, but if you hurt him at all... I'll
destroy you.”
I placed a gentle hand on Minagi's shoulder and I felt the tension
slowly begin to bleed out of her.
“I
submit,” Yume said in a small, almost broken voice. And really, I
could tell that Yume was broken up inside. She wanted this – she
wanted it so desperately that she was willing to swallow every bit of
her broken pride, choking down every jagged shard of it, just so she
can have what was most important to her: a family and the chance to
bring about the next generation.
Feeling
that it was the right thing to do, I knelt down in front of Yume,
gently put my face to hers, giving her a soft nuzzle, and inhaled
deeply. Her soft musk
filled my nose and I immediately felt a deep-seated desire to hold
her close. Yume pressed herself against me as I inhaled. She almost
seemed to purr.
So, this is what
it feels like to have your animal-brain mess with you,
I thought to myself. It's not unpleasant... but I can see
how it can get out of control. I
sighed as I pulled away from Yume. Yume herself was blushing as she
looked downwards shyly.
“Well,” I said at something of a loss for what else to say.
“Since you girls have given your probationary approval, then we
should get started.” And with that, I carefully swept Yume off her
feet in a bridal carry and took her over to the bed. There, I sat
her down and began to work at the knot in her back.
Soon enough, the coils all fell away. Yume was left bare of anything
except panties and a chest wrap.
“There, that looks better,” I said.
Yuki giggled while Yume scowled. “What's so funny?” she asked.
Rather than say it, Yuki lifted her pajama-top, revealing her own
chest wrap.
“We never really thought about it because we were too quick getting
dressed again.”
“Well, I don't know about you guys,” Minagi interrupted with a
smirk, “ but I think we should keep the ropes and tie her to the
bed.”
Yume said nothing. She only blushed. She wasn't the only one.
“Well, let's get under the covers,” I said. Yume was about to
ask, so I preempted her. “With all of us under the covers it gets
awful warm, so we adjust the environmental controls to mimic
conditions I'm more familiar with: the desert at night. That means
that it gets cold and dry in here at night, so it's best if we all
cuddle together.”
And just like that a cool breeze passed through the room, making Yume
shudder.
I got in first, followed by Yume. Yuki, surprisingly, snuggled up to
Yume.
“What are you doing?” asked Yume suspiciously.
“You don't have any night clothes with you,” said Yuki, playing
it straight. “You'll need someone on your other side to help keep
you warm. Besides, you're Sasami-chan's size. When we spend nights
together, we like to snuggle like this because we're like sisters.
Also, if you want Gar-kun so badly, then you have to get me, too.
We're a set, after all.”
“I appreciate the thought,” grumbled Yume, “but maybe I should
just borrow a set of sleeping clothes.”
“Nope,” stated Yuki, and before Yume could say any more on the
matter, she tangled Yume's legs with her own. Yume gave Yuki a
startled look, only for Yuki to give her a peck on the lips. With
Yume utterly stunned, Yuki smiled coyly at the pint-sized
supergenius. “I like how you feel... it's a little like Gar-kun...
so solid, but so soft and warm.”
Yume turned her head to give me a shocked look and I had to suppress
a laugh.
“Yuki, tiny love? Do you like Yume?”
Yuki talked through a yawn. “Unh... she may not be like Minagi-nee
yet... I guess that is part of why I like her.”
“So you are attracted to girls as well?”
Yuki was quiet for a moment. “You won't be angry?”
“Of course not, tiny love. I just want you to be happy and honest
with yourself and us.”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“Well... I used to like only other girls. It always felt safer
because my father told me how nasty and mean other boys could be.
But I learned that there is one man I really like.” Yuki lifted
her head up and gave me a sleepy looking, beatific smile. “I love
my Gar-kun... and I hope that Gar-kun and my sister-wives will love
me just as much.” And with that, Yuki flopped back down into her
spot and snuggled a little closer to Yume, who continued to give me a
surprised look.
I simply shrugged. “I had wondered about it myself, but I never
knew for sure until now. So, now that we're all comfortable...
Yume... I want to know all about you. Tell me about where you came
from and how you got here.”
From there, we spent a good deal of the night talking quietly
together.
Yume had come from a very hard world – it was covered with
temperate conifer rainforests and had huge predators like massive
feathered theropods. There were smaller varieties, too. Some
deadlier and more intelligent than others. Some of the smallest ones
her people had been able to domesticate, much like how wild horses
and wolves had been.
Prey animals consisted of massive, wooly sauropods – dangerous to
hunt, not only due to their size and lethality, but also because the
predators were opportunists and had no issue with poaching another
kill.
Yume's people were descended from a race of raccoon-like mammals.
Omnivorous, dextrous, intelligent, and adaptive, they thrived in the
kingdom of giants and began to make tools, agriculture, and a
pack-based matriarchal society.
At some point, pirates had arrived on her world and enslaved a good
number of her people, forcibly uplifting them so they could better
make food and mine for raw materials. Eventually, the Galaxy
Alliance caught on to what was happening and annihilated the pirates
– no quarter was given to the slavers. But for Yume's people,
there was no real going back. While they had their freedom, they
also knew very well about the existence of other worlds with other
people and the technology they possessed.
However, while her people welcomed their freedom, they stoutly
refused space-faring technology. They only took what they felt was
needed for their survival, such as advanced medical technologies,
food preservation technology, and weaponry to defend themselves and
hunt with.
It was at this time that Yume had been born. Yume herself had been
an up-and-comer during this golden age of her people. Intelligent
and cunning before her time, she was going to be the next matriarch
of her pack... until when she was the equivalent twenty Earth-years
of age, she went with a trade caravan to the Galaxy Police Outpost to
trade their goods with the Outsiders for the very first time.
Once Yume saw how the Outsiders traveled to the stars and learned
just an inkling of what was out there, she rebelled.
“The old fools!” Yume murmured tearfully. “They are so blind!
They are so stubborn to refuse the gift of traveling the Galaxy! We
could be a great people... Instead, we scrabble in the dirt and mud
and prey on stupid beasts.”
Yume was quick to take action. Stealing away in the middle of the
night, she left her pack and her home behind. All it took was a
single general intelligence examination administrated at the GP
Outpost. She blew the curve away and the next day was granted a
full-ride scholarship to the Galaxy Science Academy.
Once there, Yume continued her streak, blazing a trail through her
coursework like woman possessed. But at some point in time, Yume's
interest was caught by a fellow student at the academy. He had been
every bit as brilliant as she was, and because of this she desired
him as a mate. But when Yume had given him her bite, the man had
reacted far more poorly than I had – he had nearly killed Yume.
Heartbroken, a more wise and cynical Yume went out, graduated, and
stayed on to continue her research and learning.
And then she met Washu.
“That was a trip,” Yume said ruefully. “I'm pretty sure you've
seen her when you think she's in high-gear, but that's nothing. I've
seen THE Washu Hakubi as a full-blown nut-case. Trust me, handsome.
She's mellowed out over the millennia.”
There were anecdotes and stories about what kind of nonsense these
two got up to, especially where getting one over Dr. Clay was
concerned – those stories were especially outlandish to the point
of being noodle-incidents. And then, of course, there was the whole
“Washu's Pore” incident. The two, along with Kagato and Yakage,
became living legends on the campus.
Eventually, Yume's admiration of Washu overcame her and she had asked
if Washu would provide Yume with an ovum, and waxed on about how
incredible a child made with their genes would become a tour de
force in the science community... especially if Washu helped her
to raise the child.
Washu, while taken aback, was honestly flattered, but politely
declined. After she had lost her first child to the political
machinations of the Kuramitsu family, she had no inclinations to try
again with anyone, be they male, female or otherwise.
Soon enough, Washu was made the head of the Science Academy and she
and Yume had gone out to celebrate.
The rest, as they say, was history.
She then heard Minagi's tale – admittedly shorter since she had
come into being only shortly after Washu and Yume went their separate
ways.
Then came my even shorter story.
And then we told her what we knew about Yuki (because she was already
sound asleep and thoroughly wrapped around Yume).
“... That blows,” Yume said at last as she smoothed back Yuki's
hair to get a better look at her sleeping face. “I can't believe
they'd take their own daughter for granted like that. Had she been
born in my pack she would have never been neglected. Hell, she'd
probably have been one of my contenders for the Matriarch's spot.”
Yume then looked at me. “And you, handsome... oh, the elders would
have loved you. Intelligent and pragmatic almost to the point of
ruthlessness, yet loving and doting... They would say that you were
a gift of the gods and I don't think they would have been too far off
the mark. Too bad you couldn't have been born on my world, but then
I might have never left.
“And you, Minagi... I'm sorry about what happened before with your
father's sword. I had no idea what it really meant to him...”
“We all have regrets, Yume,” said Minagi with a sigh. “All we
can do is make a better tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” I said sleepily. “How about we all start by catching
at least a few REMs? It's getting early.”
“Best idea I've heard all night,” said Yume.
“Agreed!” replied Minagi.
As we all settled in to sleep, Yume's hand reached my face and turned
it to to hers. All at once, she kissed me hungrily, her sharp teeth
softly nipping at my lips.
“Hmmm...” sighed Yume. “Not bad. I hope this is indicative of
what intimacy with you will be like.”
“Sweet Tsunami, you have no idea!” came Minagi's voice.
I laughed softly at that. “Get some sleep, crazy eyes.”
Yume scoffed. “Same to you, handsome.
Theerrrre ya go. So, how terrible is it?
of character building happening in this tidbit here. Washu puts her
foot down on Garrick, Garrick in turn has to put his foot down on Yume,
and Yume is forced to humble herself to get what she wants. Minagi goes
on the defensive on Garrick's behalf, and Yuki comes out of the closet.
If one were to ask Garrick about it, he'd just shrug and say it's been one of those kinds of months...
“I
was worried about this,” Washu sighed after I explained what had
happened in the bath. “I blame myself, really. There were a lot
of signs, but the clearest one of them all was the fact she bit you.
Honestly, I should have done something then.”
“You
can fix this, right?” I said. “I mean I can't be going around
wanting to screw her like an animal every time she shows up.”
“I
could fix it,” Washu admitted. “But really, at this point it's
for the best if you learn how to control it.”
I
blinked. “I can?”
Washu
nodded. “You're right about wanting to 'screw her like an animal'.
Because it's coming from the animalistic part of your brain – the
part that handles all your base desires and needs, including the
desire to have sex and reproduce. Keep that in mind and you should
have no problem in dealing with her.”
I
was a bit astounded that Washu was brushing this aside like that, but
I wasn't going to give up so readily.
“Okay,
yeah, animal side of my brain,” I said a bit sarcastically. “The
primitive part that's separate from the cerebrum. Got it. Still
doesn't help me if I'm in the middle of something and she comes on by
and I start thinking about pinning her to a wall and ripping her
clothes off.”
Washu
snorted. “Kinky, but it sounds nice in an immediate kind of way.
Really, Garrick, it is for the better. Besides, didn't you extoll
over her qualities at one point in time?”
“Aren't
you being something of an enabler here?”
Washu
gave me a sharp, calculating look. “Okay,” she said levelly. “I
will admit, I am kinda rooting for Yume here. But at the same time,
Garrick, just like you push Tenchi to be a leader, I'd like to push
you to fend for yourself without resorting to my help.”
I
fumed for a moment and Washu just kept staring me down. But then I
thought about it for a moment. Washu had been helping me with a lot
of things lately. Granted, it was mostly her own interest to see
what sort of plausible insanity I could cook up if she just turned me
loose on her stockpiles of advanced technology. But even so, a lot
of that was me coming up with inventive ways of working around the
power-gap between me and everyone else here, such as Sun Spark and
Raiden's Toothpick. Not to mention all the other times she's gone
out of her way to not only save my life, but also make sure that I
won't always need intensive medical care if I get 'roughed up' a bit.
“Alright,”
I said slowly, still a little peeved even though I had recognized
that I had developed a nasty sense of entitlement lately. “So I
have to deal with it then. How is this supposed to work between her
and I? I'm not just gonna be some sperm donor.”
“No,
that's not how she was raised,” said Washu. “Believe it or not,
while Yume may view her servants as mere tools, the man she chooses
as a mate is not someone she would trifle with – he's not just
going to be a sperm donor. Think about it, Garrick – intelligence
factors into her criteria, but that's nothing without someone willing
to pass on their knowledge. And besides, she already knows you'd be
a good father figure.”
“Yeah,
I get it...” I sighed as I quit pacing and plunked myself down into
a chair. “Do you think Yume was being serious when she said that
she wouldn't cause any trouble for the other girls?”
“She's
a schemer, not a liar,” Washu replied perfunctorily. “If she
says that she honestly wants to work with your other paramours, then
she will. Don't forget that she comes from a survival-driven people
that band together in packs. Strife in the pack is not a healthy
thing. If anything, she might be good for the makeup of your
household – she'll make sure that everyone toes the line.”
I
blinked at that. “So you're saying she'll be my enforcer? Weird.”
Washu
shrugged. “Not her style, really. She just won't tolerate having
to deal with anyone's crap. Anyhow, I know I said I shouldn't swoop
in to rescue you, but that doesn't mean I can't lend a hand. That
said...” Washu reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of
innocuous looking pills. “Here, swallow these.” she said as she
handed them to me.
“What
are they?” I asked as I looked them over in my palm.
“They'll
suppress her pheromones' reaction with the receptors in your
olfactory nerves. But not completely. You'll still feel a moderate
physical attraction to her – just not an immediate desire to have
sex with her. And it's only good for forty-eight hours. Use that
time to keep her around and decide if you want her to be part of your
family or not.”
“Alright
then,” I grumbled as I popped the pills and swallowed. They had a
candy-like gel coat that made them easy to swallow. A spoon full of
sugar really does help the medicine go down.
“Good
on you,” cheered Washu, but then her expression sobered.
“Honestly, Garrick, I do hope that you two hit it off despite this
bad impression. Yume's actually a good friend of mine – we had a
lot of fun back in our Academy days even though we never really
collaborated much. It'll be nice if we can call each other family
someday.”
“Yeah,
well if we don't click, then we don't click. Otherwise, I'll just
take your word on good faith and give the pint-sized terror the
benefit of a doubt.”
When
I arrived back to Minagi's bedroom suite, it was to an incredibly odd
tableau.
Yume,
bound from her neck to ankles in seemingly endless coils of rope like
a damsel-in-distress from a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon. She
wore an expression of long-suffering patience.
Yuki
and Minagi were on either side of her, both wearing eminently
satisfied smiles.
“Okaaayyyyy,”
I drawled out. “I was expecting a lot, but this was not exactly
one of them.”
“How
so?” asked Minagi coyly.
“Everything
in here is still intact.”
Yuki
laughed and Minagi shook her head, but was smiling regardless.
“After
you left it was like Yume relaxed some,” said Yuki. “Of course,
Minagi and I were still kinda angry with her... we didn't even
realize she wasn't fighting back until we were half-way done tying
her up. She didn't even say anything to stop us. It was kinda
weird.”
“Did
you think I was lying before?” grumbled Yume, “I want to show
good faith on my part. I won't be the one to cause trouble... well,
at least no more than these two are willing to handle.”
I
crossed my arms and gave Yume my patented 'pull the other one' look.
“Cute,”
I said with sarcasm I only half-felt. Really, Yume was an adorable
little spitfire. The trouble was that there were times that she was
just so full of piss and vinegar... But that aside, Minagi and Yuki
were still steamed with Yume, and I wanted answers myself. “Yume,
what the hell happened earlier? I mean, besides the obvious. Why
did you come on to me in such a way that was gonna antagonize me and
my ladies?”
Yume
looked down in shame. “I... stopped taking my inhibitors.”
“Inhibitors?”
I asked. “What do they inhibit?”
“Hormones,
mostly,” Yume said. “You remember what I said about how this all
works? Part of the reason for that is that it saves our ova cells
for when they'll be most useful. You see... my kind's reproductive
system is among the most efficient in the world. We only ever
ovulate after
intercourse, so there is a far greater chance that every one of our
ova will be put to use – it is a rare thing for a female of my kind
to reach menopause.
“To
make sure that we are doing our part, we have a hormone that builds
up in our system over time that drives us to seek out our mate. It's
how we know we're ready – when the desire to find an acceptable
male becomes overwhelming. The act of mating will purge the hormone
from our systems, but it will slowly build up once more, ensuring
that we keep having babies to maintain our population.
“I
am over five-thousand years old and as you know I have yet to take a
mate. When I stopped taking my inhibitors this morning, I didn't
think it would hit me so hard. I only really realized what had
happened after you left, so I took a half-dose of my inhibitors right
away... and then Minagi and Yuki cornered me. The rest you know
about now.”
Well,
that was food for thought.
“So,”
I said thoughtfully, “you just had some kind of insatiable mating
urge overwhelm you, but you're feeling better now.” I gave Yume an
appraising look. “Okay. I think I can accept that... but there's
something that's still bothering me. I'm still wondering exactly why
you suddenly chose me. There has got to be more to this than me just
coming in and derailing things. I get the idea that I may represent
some prime candidate in the primeval sense, but what more is there?
Why me?”
Yume
sighed. “Lady Funaho kept records of you. She noticed that I was
fixated on you, so she let me see some of them... Her recorded
observations about you, the letters that Princess Sasami wrote, and
even some video recordings. You are not just smart. You're
alpha-male material. Not simply because you like to establish
yourself as a leader, but also because you will work with others to
make them better – like how you keep pushing your younger brother
to be a leader himself and how you whipped Yuki into shape.
“The
strongest packs aren't the ones with males and females that seek to
utterly dominate their underlings. In those packs, where the leaders
destroy any that may pose a threat to their position and status, they
only destroy that which would make their pack strong. Such packs are
short-lived and are, in turn, destroyed by stronger packs that foster
leadership in the lower ranks. If this means a young pup will take
the place of an honored leader, then it is not only deemed
acceptable, but the new leader will be groomed by the elder to take
their place.
“So
you see, my interest in you is not simply some perception of status.
Among my people, a good leader amongst the males is also a good
father – someone that teaches the pups, raises and protects them
with care. The Pack is Family, and Family is everything. Do you
think I would want anything less for my children?”
I
gave Yume a hard look. “No, you wouldn't. But what of the male in
question? How he feels about you and your actions towards him?”
“Do
you not want something similar?” asked Yume in return, her look
just as hard as mine. “Look around you! You already have the
beginnings of an excellent pack! You have two highly valuable
females. Minagi is a proven warrior. Yuki, on the other hand, is
too young to mate. However, she is turning into an excellent female
in her own right! Do you think I didn't see how she willingly
underwent her transformation? She did it not only for herself, but
for you! If this is the pack that you are building, then I want in.”
Yume then bowed her head, seemingly in shame. “And I am willing
to humble myself if that is what it takes... I only want the absolute
best for my children.”
Children.
Is that all she really wanted? But the problem there is that from
her perspective, a mate is part-and-parcel with children. I could
honestly appreciate and even honor that, but I still had concerns.
Katherine, any
chance that you can see what her pheromones are doing to me?
Unh!
Replied my tree cheerfully. They're definitely trying to
do a number on you. Washu-chan's remedy is working, though –
nowhere near as many are activating the receptors in your olfactory.
I think those mating hormones of hers are tied to her pheromone
production. If you do make pictures of spring with her, then it will
taper off – she won't produce as many pheromones and you'll be a
little more desensitized.
Who's side are
you on!? I thought back at my
tree in bewilderment as she giggled at my expense. As
attractive as that sounds to my baser self, not right now. I want to
get to really get to know Yume before I decide whether or not to make
her mine... Ugh, no, I mean to accept her...
Really,
it kinda hurt my ego to have that thought. There really is a part of
my mind that wants me to dominate and rule over any and all women
that come my way. Fortunately, it's tempered by my compassion for
their feelings, so at its worst this part of my mind is reduced to
wanting them to submit of their own free will instead of raping
everything in sight.
Katherine,
on the other hand, simply giggled again.
It's okay,
Gar-kun. I know it's kinda tough when your mind is all fuzzy from
Yume-chan's smell. You just wanna gobble them all up for yourself,
don't you?
I rolled my eyes and thought back, You know you aren't helping
much, right?
Katherine giggled once more. In the end, I'm really just another
one of your girls. We just relate on a different level... but on
that level, I'm more than happy to have Gar-kun gobble me up, too!
Om-nom-nom-nom!
I had to keep myself from laughing at that last bit.
So, my women wanted me to 'gobble them up' as Katherine put it. That
may be what the natural man does, but it's not what I am supposed to
do. Granted, I did this with Minagi – she practically threw
herself at me and I obliged her, giving each other comfort in our
sharing of our bodies and hearts.
But now, things between Minagi and I were deeper. She was ready to
start a family, and that meant I had to be a lot more selective in
who I shared my body with, let alone become apart of the family. Add
Yuki into the mix as well...
...Well, if you look deeply enough into historical and religious
texts where good and righteous men had more than one wife, you would
find that he simply didn't make any decisions on the spur of the
moment. He first had to hear what all of his wives' thoughts on a
given matter, and then weigh their opinions with great care before
deciding on a path.
In all reality, this is only common sense no matter how you slice it.
You can't run roughshod over anyone in your family. Everyone's
feelings need to be taken into consideration. Even if you can't
please everyone at once, what is important is that you took the time
to hear them out and gave it an honest try. (In my opinion, this
would be especially true of the children – they're the ones who are
impacted the most by a patriarch's decisions!)
“Minagi?”
I asked.
“I
don't like what she did,” Minagi said thoughtfully, mulling the
situation over in her head. “She's subverted your feelings. That
is not right, even if it is how her people do things.” She then
gave Yume a harsh look. “You should have tried to win his heart
before doing that to him.”
Yume
flinched at Minagi's rebuttal, but said nothing. Her only response
was to lower her head even further.
I
sighed and then looked to Yuki. “What do you think, tiny love?”
Yuki,
for her part, hummed thoughtfully, and suddenly reached out, lifting
Yume's face to her own, and stared deeply into Yume's eyes. Yume
started at the sudden intrusion of personal space, but relaxed
somewhat when she saw that no attack was forthcoming.
“You
don't like being alone, do you?” asked Yuki suddenly, surprising
all of us at once.
“How
can you tell?” Yume
replied sullenly.
“Because
your eyes are just like how mine used to be. I was alone, too...
until Garrick saved my life. Minagi used to be lonely, too. Even
Garrick... I think his loneliness was the worst.”
I
went over and gently nudged Yuki aside, then hunkered down and looked
into Yume's eyes myself. Yuki was right – there was a lot of hurt
hidden in those angry looking eyes, and only the least of it was
fresh from the last few days.
Was
that what this all boiled down to? It would make sense, especially
if Yume really did come from a pack-based society. Being alone all
that time, no one to support her, with only herself fending for
herself... it was a miracle she was as sane as she was.
I
felt a wave of pity for the pint-sized genius, so I looked to Minagi
once more.
“Well,
what do you think?”
Minagi sighed and I could tell that she was honestly struggling with
this. Of course she hated what Yume did to me, but having dealt with
the pain of solitude herself she could also somewhat understand why
Yume would suddenly become so desperate.
Minagi finally gave Yume a sharp look. “Alright... You came from a
place where women are in charge? It's different now. He's the one
in charge. Not you. Not me. Not Yuki-chan. And when he finds a
woman of the Jyurai family to marry, not even she is gonna be in
charge. Garrick is very kind and very lenient... and I can tell he
wants to give you a chance. I don't know for sure if this is your
bite messing with his head, but if you hurt him at all... I'll
destroy you.”
I placed a gentle hand on Minagi's shoulder and I felt the tension
slowly begin to bleed out of her.
“I
submit,” Yume said in a small, almost broken voice. And really, I
could tell that Yume was broken up inside. She wanted this – she
wanted it so desperately that she was willing to swallow every bit of
her broken pride, choking down every jagged shard of it, just so she
can have what was most important to her: a family and the chance to
bring about the next generation.
Feeling
that it was the right thing to do, I knelt down in front of Yume,
gently put my face to hers, giving her a soft nuzzle, and inhaled
deeply. Her soft musk
filled my nose and I immediately felt a deep-seated desire to hold
her close. Yume pressed herself against me as I inhaled. She almost
seemed to purr.
So, this is what
it feels like to have your animal-brain mess with you,
I thought to myself. It's not unpleasant... but I can see
how it can get out of control. I
sighed as I pulled away from Yume. Yume herself was blushing as she
looked downwards shyly.
“Well,” I said at something of a loss for what else to say.
“Since you girls have given your probationary approval, then we
should get started.” And with that, I carefully swept Yume off her
feet in a bridal carry and took her over to the bed. There, I sat
her down and began to work at the knot in her back.
Soon enough, the coils all fell away. Yume was left bare of anything
except panties and a chest wrap.
“There, that looks better,” I said.
Yuki giggled while Yume scowled. “What's so funny?” she asked.
Rather than say it, Yuki lifted her pajama-top, revealing her own
chest wrap.
“We never really thought about it because we were too quick getting
dressed again.”
“Well, I don't know about you guys,” Minagi interrupted with a
smirk, “ but I think we should keep the ropes and tie her to the
bed.”
Yume said nothing. She only blushed. She wasn't the only one.
“Well, let's get under the covers,” I said. Yume was about to
ask, so I preempted her. “With all of us under the covers it gets
awful warm, so we adjust the environmental controls to mimic
conditions I'm more familiar with: the desert at night. That means
that it gets cold and dry in here at night, so it's best if we all
cuddle together.”
And just like that a cool breeze passed through the room, making Yume
shudder.
I got in first, followed by Yume. Yuki, surprisingly, snuggled up to
Yume.
“What are you doing?” asked Yume suspiciously.
“You don't have any night clothes with you,” said Yuki, playing
it straight. “You'll need someone on your other side to help keep
you warm. Besides, you're Sasami-chan's size. When we spend nights
together, we like to snuggle like this because we're like sisters.
Also, if you want Gar-kun so badly, then you have to get me, too.
We're a set, after all.”
“I appreciate the thought,” grumbled Yume, “but maybe I should
just borrow a set of sleeping clothes.”
“Nope,” stated Yuki, and before Yume could say any more on the
matter, she tangled Yume's legs with her own. Yume gave Yuki a
startled look, only for Yuki to give her a peck on the lips. With
Yume utterly stunned, Yuki smiled coyly at the pint-sized
supergenius. “I like how you feel... it's a little like Gar-kun...
so solid, but so soft and warm.”
Yume turned her head to give me a shocked look and I had to suppress
a laugh.
“Yuki, tiny love? Do you like Yume?”
Yuki talked through a yawn. “Unh... she may not be like Minagi-nee
yet... I guess that is part of why I like her.”
“So you are attracted to girls as well?”
Yuki was quiet for a moment. “You won't be angry?”
“Of course not, tiny love. I just want you to be happy and honest
with yourself and us.”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“Well... I used to like only other girls. It always felt safer
because my father told me how nasty and mean other boys could be.
But I learned that there is one man I really like.” Yuki lifted
her head up and gave me a sleepy looking, beatific smile. “I love
my Gar-kun... and I hope that Gar-kun and my sister-wives will love
me just as much.” And with that, Yuki flopped back down into her
spot and snuggled a little closer to Yume, who continued to give me a
surprised look.
I simply shrugged. “I had wondered about it myself, but I never
knew for sure until now. So, now that we're all comfortable...
Yume... I want to know all about you. Tell me about where you came
from and how you got here.”
From there, we spent a good deal of the night talking quietly
together.
Yume had come from a very hard world – it was covered with
temperate conifer rainforests and had huge predators like massive
feathered theropods. There were smaller varieties, too. Some
deadlier and more intelligent than others. Some of the smallest ones
her people had been able to domesticate, much like how wild horses
and wolves had been.
Prey animals consisted of massive, wooly sauropods – dangerous to
hunt, not only due to their size and lethality, but also because the
predators were opportunists and had no issue with poaching another
kill.
Yume's people were descended from a race of raccoon-like mammals.
Omnivorous, dextrous, intelligent, and adaptive, they thrived in the
kingdom of giants and began to make tools, agriculture, and a
pack-based matriarchal society.
At some point, pirates had arrived on her world and enslaved a good
number of her people, forcibly uplifting them so they could better
make food and mine for raw materials. Eventually, the Galaxy
Alliance caught on to what was happening and annihilated the pirates
– no quarter was given to the slavers. But for Yume's people,
there was no real going back. While they had their freedom, they
also knew very well about the existence of other worlds with other
people and the technology they possessed.
However, while her people welcomed their freedom, they stoutly
refused space-faring technology. They only took what they felt was
needed for their survival, such as advanced medical technologies,
food preservation technology, and weaponry to defend themselves and
hunt with.
It was at this time that Yume had been born. Yume herself had been
an up-and-comer during this golden age of her people. Intelligent
and cunning before her time, she was going to be the next matriarch
of her pack... until when she was the equivalent twenty Earth-years
of age, she went with a trade caravan to the Galaxy Police Outpost to
trade their goods with the Outsiders for the very first time.
Once Yume saw how the Outsiders traveled to the stars and learned
just an inkling of what was out there, she rebelled.
“The old fools!” Yume murmured tearfully. “They are so blind!
They are so stubborn to refuse the gift of traveling the Galaxy! We
could be a great people... Instead, we scrabble in the dirt and mud
and prey on stupid beasts.”
Yume was quick to take action. Stealing away in the middle of the
night, she left her pack and her home behind. All it took was a
single general intelligence examination administrated at the GP
Outpost. She blew the curve away and the next day was granted a
full-ride scholarship to the Galaxy Science Academy.
Once there, Yume continued her streak, blazing a trail through her
coursework like woman possessed. But at some point in time, Yume's
interest was caught by a fellow student at the academy. He had been
every bit as brilliant as she was, and because of this she desired
him as a mate. But when Yume had given him her bite, the man had
reacted far more poorly than I had – he had nearly killed Yume.
Heartbroken, a more wise and cynical Yume went out, graduated, and
stayed on to continue her research and learning.
And then she met Washu.
“That was a trip,” Yume said ruefully. “I'm pretty sure you've
seen her when you think she's in high-gear, but that's nothing. I've
seen THE Washu Hakubi as a full-blown nut-case. Trust me, handsome.
She's mellowed out over the millennia.”
There were anecdotes and stories about what kind of nonsense these
two got up to, especially where getting one over Dr. Clay was
concerned – those stories were especially outlandish to the point
of being noodle-incidents. And then, of course, there was the whole
“Washu's Pore” incident. The two, along with Kagato and Yakage,
became living legends on the campus.
Eventually, Yume's admiration of Washu overcame her and she had asked
if Washu would provide Yume with an ovum, and waxed on about how
incredible a child made with their genes would become a tour de
force in the science community... especially if Washu helped her
to raise the child.
Washu, while taken aback, was honestly flattered, but politely
declined. After she had lost her first child to the political
machinations of the Kuramitsu family, she had no inclinations to try
again with anyone, be they male, female or otherwise.
Soon enough, Washu was made the head of the Science Academy and she
and Yume had gone out to celebrate.
The rest, as they say, was history.
She then heard Minagi's tale – admittedly shorter since she had
come into being only shortly after Washu and Yume went their separate
ways.
Then came my even shorter story.
And then we told her what we knew about Yuki (because she was already
sound asleep and thoroughly wrapped around Yume).
“... That blows,” Yume said at last as she smoothed back Yuki's
hair to get a better look at her sleeping face. “I can't believe
they'd take their own daughter for granted like that. Had she been
born in my pack she would have never been neglected. Hell, she'd
probably have been one of my contenders for the Matriarch's spot.”
Yume then looked at me. “And you, handsome... oh, the elders would
have loved you. Intelligent and pragmatic almost to the point of
ruthlessness, yet loving and doting... They would say that you were
a gift of the gods and I don't think they would have been too far off
the mark. Too bad you couldn't have been born on my world, but then
I might have never left.
“And you, Minagi... I'm sorry about what happened before with your
father's sword. I had no idea what it really meant to him...”
“We all have regrets, Yume,” said Minagi with a sigh. “All we
can do is make a better tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” I said sleepily. “How about we all start by catching
at least a few REMs? It's getting early.”
“Best idea I've heard all night,” said Yume.
“Agreed!” replied Minagi.
As we all settled in to sleep, Yume's hand reached my face and turned
it to to hers. All at once, she kissed me hungrily, her sharp teeth
softly nipping at my lips.
“Hmmm...” sighed Yume. “Not bad. I hope this is indicative of
what intimacy with you will be like.”
“Sweet Tsunami, you have no idea!” came Minagi's voice.
I laughed softly at that. “Get some sleep, crazy eyes.”
Yume scoffed. “Same to you, handsome.
Theerrrre ya go. So, how terrible is it?