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Dane Bennett fidgeted in the huge, low couch that took up most of Noriko's studio apartment, unable to quite make eye contact with his boss and lover. He'd just dropped a bombshell on her and he was afraid to look at her reaction. It probably wouldn't be good. Most people's reactions wouldn't be good. Then again, he wasn't going to tell most people. But he had to tell Noriko and Bertie--honesty was paramount in a polyamorous relationship. He knew his parents would be hardest, and he usually liked to get the worst work out of the way first, but he owed it to Noriko to put her first. She was his partner before Darian, and also his boss, so she would be the first to hear it from his own mouth what had happened.

When the little Ysoki finally spoke, her tone was reserved and careful. That was a bad sign, he decided. "I don't really know what to say, Dane," she said. Dane swallowed and risked a glance. She looked worried. "That's... not really normal. I don't want to judge, but... it makes me a little uncomfortable."

Dane cast his eyes back down and nodded. His mouth suddenly felt dry as the Titan Sands. "I get it. It's... I know it's not normal. I tried to suppress it, but when we had the threesome with Bertie, they reignited that..." He stopped himself from saying urge--made it sound even worse. "...interest. I tried to avoid them for a while, hoping it would just go away, but that... didn't work."

Noriko crossed her arms, keeping her distance on the couch. Dane's stomach dropped looking at her body language. He'd lost her, obviously. He told himself not to cry until he'd left. She might feel guilty and rescind her decision, which wasn't fair to her. It was the right decision, really.

_Gods, chill out. She hasn't made any decision, yet. Stop reading so much into this._He clung to the thought like a life vest in the ocean.

"Do you love them?"

Dane looked back up, brow furrowed. He rubbed absently at his arm fur. "Well--yeah. Of course. They're my sibling."

Noriko glared at him, her rat whiskers twitching, and he shrank a little. "That's not what I mean."

He cast his eyes down again and nodded.

"Do you love me?"

"Yes." Gods, don't make me choose. Do not say that.

"Then... I'm willing to try to look past this." Dane frowned and looked back at her. That was decidedly not what he'd expected to hear. "I... I don't know how I feel about it. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. But I love you, and I like Darian a lot. They're a good worker." Her whiskers vibrated again, this time bashfully. "And a great lay, admittedly. I care about them. And you. And I don't want to lose you. But I need a little time to adjust to this. Please?"

Dane nodded. He was fairly certain with more time to think on it, she'd decide she was not okay with it, but as much as he didn't want to drag this out in agony any farther than necessary, she deserved the chance to digest what he'd told her.

"Now what?" she asked, shivering a little.

"I should go," he said quietly. "I still need to have a very unpleasant conversation with Mom and Dad."

"More unpleasant than this one?" she asked, a little smile on her lips.

Dane laughed. "This is heaven compared to what's in store. That's gonna be an all-out brawl, I'm sure. Especially if she gets Alan involved. Gods, I hope she doesn't tell Alan." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. His older brother would have to find out eventually, but he'd never understand--he'd always sided more with Mom than his siblings. They were too much alike. "Regardless, you've been calm and reasonable and frankly, really fucking cool with this whole thing, considering. Just the fact that you're willing to try and understand is way more than I can expect from Mom. But there's reasons she's being a serious goddamn hypocrite. Reasons that I won't go into."

Noriko shrugged and nodded. "I can't promise I can get into this, but I want to try to be okay with it. I don't wanna lose you."

Dane rubbed one round, furry ear pitifully. "Can I kiss you before I go?"

Noriko looked at him with such sympathy that he felt like an idiot for asking in the first place. "Course you can, stupid. C'mere." She planted a soft kiss on his lips, her long whiskers rubbing against his shorter ones. "Good luck, babe. Don't take her shit. I know how overbearing moms can be."

"I love you," he said with the most certainty he remembered saying anything in a long time. He really did love her, in a way he'd never loved anybody else, even Darian, even Bertie. Despite the absolutely filthy sex they regularly engaged in, his feelings for her were more pure than any he'd ever felt. He didn't regret what he'd done with Darian, exactly, but that would probably change if it cost him his relationship with Nori.

She wrapped her little arms around his neck and kissed his face and neck. "I love you too, baby. Thank you for being honest with me."

He hugged her waist and buried his snout in her hair, breathing in the scent of her soap and praying it wouldn't be the last time he smelled it. "Always."

* * *

Dane stared at the dark wood of the front door of his childhood home and wondered if this, too, would be the last time he stepped through it. Mom would definitely not like what he had to say. Hells, he didn't like what he had to say. But it had to be said. Whether she took it to heart was up to her. Nothing to do but face it.

He turned the ugly square doorknob and stepped into the house.

Dad sat on the couch in the den, staring blankly into the cold fireplace. He was clothed, which was unusual for him. Tom Bennett rarely wore a stitch in the summer unless he was leaving the house. His father was the reason Dane had been able to be comfortable in his own skin, be accepting of his imperfections. For example, Dad had a small bald patch on his right abdomen from where a feral shark had attacked him on a fishing expedition ten years ago, and while the scar had mostly faded and the fur regrown, a small patch remained noticeably hairless. And he had a pinky toe on his left foot that was permanently crooked from breaking and healing wrong. And a small but growing beer gut. Yet Tom never had any fear of judgment, at least from his family. Dane had always loved that about him.

As he looked at his father now, he saw that fearlessness gone. Not replaced by fear, though--by a sort of empty listlessness, a low-grade anxiety that hummed under the surface of his glassy stare. He turned his eyes to his son slowly and deliberately. If he understood why Dane was here, it didn't register in his apathetic gaze.

"Hey, kiddo."

A lump rushed up Dane's throat, and his hands trembled. "Hey, Dad."

"What's the occasion?"

Dane closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "I need to talk to you and Mom. About what happened with Darian."

There was almost no change in Tom's face, save for an imperceptible droop in his mouth. "Oh." He turned back to the cold, empty fireplace. "I guess we should, yeah."

Dane swallowed down his fear and irritation. "Where's Mom?"

"Bedroom." He didn't move.

Dane growled and turned down the hallway to the bedrooms. He stopped at the door and raised his hand to knock but paused when his ears pricked up. He heard... crying. His jaw clenched, fighting back the instinctual reaction of sympathy. Even if she regretted her reaction yesterday, a conversation still needed to be had, and he wasn't going to let pity sway him from saying his piece. He knocked loudly. "Mom, open up. It's Dane. We need to talk."

A few moments passed, and the door swung open. Marina Bennett stood before him, still in a silver nightgown despite it being early afternoon, long dark hair splayed in a frazzled mess instead of the tight braid she usually kept. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. Understanding bloomed on her face as soon as she saw her son. "Is she okay?"

Dane blinked. "I--yes. They're fine. No thanks to you."

Mari closed her eyes and lowered her head. "I--I shouldn't have thrown her out like that, not in the storm. I should have given her until the morning. I was angry, and--"

He clenched his jaw. "Come to the den. I have things to say to you and Dad." He didn't wait for a response. He simply turned around and strode away.

A minute or two later, Marina sat next to her husband on the couch in the sunken den in a bathrobe. Dane stood in front of them, arms crossed, mulling over how to broach the subject that needed saying. He was about to open a can of worms that there was no putting a lid back onto.

"Darian and I had sex," he said flatly.

Tom's face dropped. Mari started weeping quietly. Yeah, that seemed about appropriate. Frankly, it was refreshing to see reactions he'd _expected_to see from this revelation. Noriko being so calm about it had started to freak him out.

"It will probably happen again. We enjoyed it. I understand if that upsets you. But truth be told, your behavior yesterday toward them upsets me, too."

"Baby, how could you?" Mari sobbed. "What is wrong with this family?"

Dane scowled. "That's a laugh, coming from you."

Indignant anger cut through Mari's weeping. "Excuse me??"

"Darian told me about what she saw in your bedroom after the shower incident. You're a fucking hypocrite, Mom."

"Wh--that's--" Marina sputtered furiously. "That's different! It's not the same thing--"

"No," Dane cut her off, "but it's close enough that your reaction was way the fuck out of line. And furthermore, I don't see you kicking Dad out of the house, despite him being an equally guilty party."

"This is his house--"

"It's ours, too!" Dane roared. "This was our home too! And you threw Darian out like trash! Dad got a good pegging, and Darian got thrown the fuck out! It's horseshit and you fucking know it!"

Marina looked like her molecules were about to vibrate apart, her fury made her shake so hard. Dane stared her down. If it came to physical violence, she'd tear him limb from limb, there was no getting around it. His mother was a badass. But he wasn't about to let her anger cow him, either.

He swiveled in place and jabbed a finger at his father. "And you. You're a fucking coward. You sat there and said nothing while Mom put all the blame for your fucking actions on Darian." Tom just kept staring at the empty fireplace, not an ounce of reaction on his face. Not shame, nor anger, nor indignation. Nothing but resignation. Dane turned away in disgust.

"Your father came clean with his actions!" Marina shouted. "Darian tried to hide them! She was dishonest--"

"Of course they hid them!" Dane snapped back, his hands at his sides in fists now. "They were ashamed! And scared! They wanted everything to be okay! They still_do! _You were the one who called them names and threw them out into a fucking_storm_ after getting off on what had happened! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"I--I didn't get--" Mari stumbled on her words, and Dane pounced.

"The fuck you didn't. Darian told me everything. Now who's fucking dishonest?" He stared at her, daring her with his eyes to disagree with him. Marina's jaw clenched.

"Did she tell you why I was screaming at her?" she growled.

"Because you flipped your lid during dinner--" Dane started, but his mother cut him off.

"And do you know why I flipped my lid?"

"Marina, maybe we shouldn't--" Tom started, but Mari hissed at him to cut him off.

She whirled back at Dane and sneered, "I caught her rubbing her father's crotch with her foot at dinner."

Dane opened his mouth, closed it, and rubbed his eyes. Fuck's sake, Darian. Seriously? He waited for a moment before speaking. "Okay. That was stupid of her. Doesn't change my point."

"What do you mean, 'it doesn't change your point'??" Mari nearly screamed. "She did that! At my dinner table! To my husband!"

Dane narrowed his eyes at her and said, "Didn't seem to be a problem for you when you were getting off on their shower escapades."

Marina stood up, fists clenched at her sides, looking ready for violence. "I did not get off on it!"

"What are you gonna do, Mom?" Dane asked in a dangerously low tone. "Hit me? Maybe just throw me out, too? At least I wouldn't have to hear your bullshit denial anymore. You nailed Dad in the ass--"

"Language!" Tom protested feebly.

"--in the ass," Dane snarled, directing the words at his father contemptuously, "and came plenty hard, according to Darian. Sounds like you got off on it to me, Mom. So get the fuck off your high horse."

Marina stood trembling for almost a minute while Dane waited to see if she'd hit him. He saw the violence in her eyes, and gods-dammit, it was scary. Marina Bennett was a strong woman, stronger than just about any man he'd ever met. He, on the other hand, got most of his exercise lifting crates of booze between bar rushes. If she came at him, he was shredded meat. He swallowed hard and stood his ground, but gods did he want to back away then.

Mari seemed to sense his fear, because she slowly unclenched her fists and sat back down, suddenly unable to look at her son. He knew it wasn't really a win in the argument, but it was something, anyway. Not much, but something. He released his breath with a shudder.

Dane closed his eyes and counted down from ten. When he opened them, he was still furious and a little terrified, but he felt like he could breathe properly, at least. "I love you," he said as calmly as he could manage. "I love both of you. But I have never been so fucking disappointed in the two of you in my entire life. You've always been loving, understanding, and accepting people. I always looked up to you for that. But the way you two handled yourselves yesterday leaves me absolutely disgusted."

Mari scoffed. "That's rich coming from the one who fucked his sister."

"Sibling."

"Whatever."

"Not 'whatever,' Mom. You can't stop yourself from being heinous, can you? Your husband tried to fuck your child and you gave him a goddamn pass. Meanwhile, you traumatized that child and now you disrespect them like that? Are you even listening to yourself anymore?"

Marina opened her mouth to retort, but Tom put a hand on her leg. "Stop," he said quietly. "He's right."

Marina looked at her husband like he'd changed into a Vithis and bit her. "What??"

"What happened was wrong," he said, and the shame on his face made it clear what incident he was referring to. "What Dane and Darian have done is wrong. But how you reacted to her was worse. I started it. And... I may have... given her the impression the... thing at dinner was okay." Marina opened her mouth to speak, face contorted in confusion, but Tom waved her off. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter now. The point is, if anyone should have been thrown out, it was me. But you threw out Darian. Dane's right. You were happy to use the incident as fodder for our bedroom escapades, but your jealousy made you blame the wrong person for what happened."

"I'm... I'm not j... j..." But Mari couldn't finish the sentence. Her drooping face made it clear even she couldn't make such a fallacious claim.

Dane decided to drive the point home. "You were crying when I got here. Because of what you did. Right?"

Marina's lip quivered and she stared at the floor.

"You knew deep down what you did was wrong. Just as wrong as everybody else, but the difference is the rest of us aren't pretending to be righteous about it. Frankly, it should be Darian here tearing you a new one and not me, but Darian didn't want to come. They were scared of you. They wanted to hide under a rock and die of shame. They needed help, instead they got you. Do you understand the damage that did? I dunno if they'll ever trust you again. I dunno if they should."

Marina didn't answer. She stared petulantly at the floor, but shame tinged her eyes. "I'm sure as Hells going to have a hard time forgetting how you treated my sibling," Dane said grimly, "but they already forgave you. They just want their parents back."

"She never lost them," Tom said quietly.

"The Hells they didn't," Dane snapped, his anger flaring again momentarily. "The way you guys treated them wasn't parenting. It was pure selfishness, on both your parts." He rubbed the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "Look, I'm not here for me anyway. I'm here for Darian. They forgot some things here in their rush to get out of the house. If you want them to stay in your lives, you're going to have to reach out to them and apologize. If you just tell them 'you're forgiven, come back home,' without saying 'I'm sorry,' they're going to spend the rest of their lives thinking the whole ordeal was entirely their fault. They'll internalize that shit. I won't have it."

There was a long, deeply, agonizingly uncomfortable silence, finally broken by Tom. "Tell her I'm sorry. Tell her... tell her I'd like to say that in person, if she--" He closed his eyes and swallowed. "If they'll let me."

Marina's snout twisted contemptuously at her husband, then seemed to realize what she'd done and buried her face in her hands, shuddering quietly. Now some of Dane's anger really did dissipate. He knelt down next to her and put a hand on her leg. "Mom?" She looked at him, her face contorted in a thousand battling emotions. "Our family's been through shit before. Maybe not as messed up as all this, but..." He shrugged. "We stayed together. We can stay together through this too. But we need you to own your shit. Darian needs you."

When neither of them said anything in return, he stood up and headed down the hallway to Darian's room. They'd asked for a few things, including their stud collection, toiletries, and more clothes. He packed up a rucksack from his old room with some of Darian's things, slung it over his shoulder, and returned to the den. His parents sat, hands clasped together, staring at the floor. Both of them were crying now. For some reason, it came as a relief to him.

He paused at the front door and said, "Darian is staying with me for the foreseeable future. If you want to fix this, come see us. Just know if you don't want to own up to this, you're going to lose two kids, not one. We're a package deal on this. Think it over."

He stepped outside, closed the door behind him, and immediately fell against it, shaking and sobbing. All the strength drained out of his limbs. Mr. MacDarmott, the old Sekhet next door, stopped pushing his mower to stare quizzically at him. Dane ignored him.

What a fucking day, he thought miserably.

* * *

"Oh fuck yes!" Bertie squealed.

Dane's mouth dropped open. "What?"

The Delphian gathered his friend up in a big hug and squeezed. They stood on the front porch of Bertie's parents, a small stained-wood platform with a pair of comfortable-looking rocking chairs on it, both still dripping from last night's storm. The mid-morning sun hadn't quite dried everything out yet.

After a surreptitious glance around to make sure no one was watching, Bertie locked his muzzle to his friend's and kissed him vigorously. Dane reciprocated with a small moan without really meaning to, then pulled back in surprise. Bertie grinned as he stepped back. "Dude. Look. I'm not like... sure how I feel about girls. You know? I mostly dated girls in high school because I was scared to come out. But your sister is super cool, and not exactly a girl, you know? Also the incest thing is kinda hot."

"Kind of..." Dane worked his jaw, but no further words came out. This was hardly how he expected the final conversation of the day to go. The first had been rough, the second absolutely destroyed him. At this point, he'd been fully prepared to lose his best friend forever to this whole ordeal. Now he was just confused. "I don't get it."

Bertie shrugged, leaning against the porch railing and smirking at Dane. "What's not to get? I like when you fuck me. I like when your sister fucks me. I like the idea of you fucking your sister. And keeping it a two-bedroom? Split three ways? Fabulous! Cheaper rent, man! More money for weed."

Dane shook his head slowly. "This... isn't how I expected this to go. I... Thank you."

Bertie seemed to sense something eating at his friend, because he came over and hugged Dane again. "Dude, I got you. All the time. That's what... well, whatever we are. That's what we're for. I... I l... Well, you know..." He pulled away, whiskers twitching bashfully.

"Yeah," Dane said with a small smile, tears welling in his eyes. "I know. Me too."

Dane snuck one last kiss from Bertie before shuffling off down the block toward his apartment, feeling exhausted but also hopeful for the first time today. He hadn't lost everyone over this. Maybe he wouldn't lose anyone, who knew? He hummed softly to himself as he turned up a side street and onto a main thoroughfare.

He probably wouldn't be that lucky, but Hells. There was always hope.