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Two

The Yard

The next day, I met Leon in Agnes's lab and wheeled him out into the Yard.

The first surprise was the sky overhead. Far at the top of the Spike, beyond floors and floors of open balcony looking down into the Yard, there was no ceiling, just cloudy gray sky. Looking that far up made my stomach turn a little. Maybe it was residual queasiness from yesterday's injection--that happened a lot--but I think it was mostly just trying to look up at such an impossibly straight angle.

The second surprise was the ground. It was... green. There was grass under our feet. That was the first time I'd ever experienced it. Lepids don't wear shoes, we got pretty calloused feet, so I felt my toes tickle as we rolled into the Yard and I looked down to see grass. I clenched my toes in it a few times. "Oh, Leon," I whispered. "You gotta feel this."

He gave me a dubious look but let me lift him out of the wheelchair. I draped his left arm over me and helped him stand. His legs still shook with the effort, but he mostly held himself up. He looked at me with eyes wide as saucers. "Holy shit, that's good."

"Right?" I breathed. "Like a hundred tiny fingers tickling your toes."

He clenched and unclenched his toes, then started to sag. "I... I gotta sit."

I nodded and eased him back into the wheelchair. He collapsed with a heavy sigh. I gently stroked his left ear as I took a look around the rest of the Yard.

The whole space was probably a hundred feet across in either direction. Every wall had a set of iron double doors and a pair of Scrofa stationed at them. In one corner of the Yard, a bench with a pole sitting across it on a pair of metal holders held several heavy-looking discs of metal on either side. Currently a Lupus woman was lifting the laden pole up and down. It looked crazy heavy. I wondered how much it weighed.

Two square tables with evenly-spaced squares carved into them sat in another corner. The tables had oddly shaped wooden lumps sitting on them in two neat rows. A jittery-looking Ysoki girl sat alone at one of the tables, muttering to herself as her little rat claws snatched a lump from one square and moved it to another. She looked like she hadn't eaten anything in days; her ribs could be seen through her dusty white fur whenever her hooded shirt rode up, and her beady red eyes had a dull sheen as she looked over the pieces on the table. As soon as she noticed me staring, she collapsed in on herself, as if trying to make herself vanish. I waved, but she just hid her face in her hands. Her whiskers poked out between the tiny fingers. That was Kiba, then. Great first impression, Nola. So much for getting people to open up.

I looked at another corner, where there was some kind of pole with a tethered ball attached. The Lupus boy, Patrice, was swinging the tetherball around the pole absently, watching me and Leon with a smirk that just begged to be knocked off his face. Yeah, I got the feeling I wasn't gonna like him.

In the last corner, on a row of benches against the wall, was a Lontramar with pure white fur and red eyes. I'd never seen anything like her before. She didn't look like Van, that was for sure. She was much, much leaner, sinuous, like a feral snake. Her whiskers seemed to vanish in her, but her black nose stood out like a beacon in that sea of white. I suddenly wanted very badly to stroke her fur and see what it felt like. This had to be Tanya. It took a minute for me to realize she wasn't wearing any clothes; her linen pants and blouse were folded neatly next to her, and her legs were spread as she leaned on them, with her small, perky breasts and sex open for all to see.

I flashed back to last night's dream and was suddenly very grateful that at least I was wearing pants. I just hoped I wasn't soaking them at the moment.

Leon was staring daggers at her, though. Guess he'd already made up his mind. I mean, it didn't seem fair to judge Tanya without knowing her, but it's not like I could blame him. The only other otter-folk we'd ever met was Van, and our relationship with our teacher had been rocky, at best.

Tanya stared right back at Leon. She didn't glare, or smile, or shrink away. She just... stared. And then, slowly, she raised one paw in greeting. She had pads on her palms, which was interesting. Van hadn't had pads on his. Leon didn't return the gesture.

It was hard to say from here, but I was pretty sure she looked a little disappointed. She brought her elbow to rest against her thigh again and broke the stare. I cleared my throat. "Maybe we should introduce ourselves to these people?"

Leon was silent for a long time, then said, "Maybe later. I'm tired. Just leave me here for now."

I vowed not to cry in front of a bunch of new people, but gosh dangit if my heart didn't break. He sounded tired, alright. Tired and defeated. I kissed his head. "Okay, bro. Let me know if you change your mind." His right ear twitched hard from my kiss. That didn't mean anything, he just had sensitive ears oh gods Nola just move on.

I moved to the Lontramar first, because she was closest. Her face immediately went slack as I approached. I supposed she was expecting the same icy greeting as my brother, but I smiled and waved. She waved back uncertainly.

"Hi," I said. "I'm--"

"Nola," Tanya finished. "They briefed me before I came over." She seemed to realize what she'd said, and her nose twitched, briefly revealing her white whiskers from in front of their camouflaged background. "Sorry. I'm not very good with people. I'm Tanya."

I nodded. "Can I ask you something?"

Tanya shrugged.

I wasn't sure what that meant, so I decided to be optimistic and take it as permission. "Why are you naked?"

"Because I like being naked. I like having people stare at me. It feels nice, usually. The fact that nobody's looking at me is making me a little nervous."

"Oh." I blinked. With the clothes Agnes had given us, I'd started to think wearing them was sort of expected outside the Pit, but maybe I'd been wrong. "I mean... Leon and I are from the Pit, and they don't allow clothing. So is Val, she's the one doing the... uh..." I realized suddenly I had no idea what to call what she was doing, so I just pointed at her. "Over there. Maybe the other two are used to it, too?"

Tanya looked at me for a while, then cocked her head. "Why aren't you naked, then? I bet you're hot."

I shook my head. "Not really, it's actually way cooler in here than the Pit. Agnes said it was something about... conditioned air?" I shrugged, suddenly feeling stupid.

If Tanya agreed, she didn't show it. She kept that neutral expression the whole time. "I meant 'hot' as in 'sexy.' Not temperature."

"Oh." My ear vibrated. "Thanks. Um. I kinda thought we were supposed to wear clothes, but... the Scrofa aren't telling you to put yours on."

Tanya shrugged. "When they transferred me, they said the Yard was for play, so we didn't need clothes. Why did your brother look at me like that?"

I didn't ask how she knew Leon was my brother. Even if no one had briefed her--and she'd already said they had--Leon and I were so alike that honestly, you'd almost need to strip us to tell us apart. Only his three thin scars across his right eye and my budding breasts could tell us apart. We even had the same jutting hip bones.

Well--before he'd lost his arm, anyway. Now it was really easy to tell us apart.

I glanced at Leon, who was staring off into the Abyss again, and sighed. "Please don't take it personal. We've had a bad couple months. We almost died. A lot. I got cancer and he lost his arm." I decided not to tell her about Ollivander just yet. I didn't want her thinking my bro was racist.

He is kinda racist, Nola. I pushed the thought out of my head.

Tanya nodded. "Bad things make people act funny. You seem to be doing okay though."

I shrugged, tugging awkwardly at my left ear. "Yeah, well. I'm better at processing this stuff than Leon is. Plus he lost a part of himself. I think he's just scared, is all."

Tanya grunted. "Yeah."

A voice cut in. "Sup, bitches?"

I turned and sure enough, the Lupus boy had wandered over. He was standing as tall as he could, his brown-and-gray fur practically bristling with the effort of looking as imposing as possible, arms folded across his chest. The whole thing would have probably been more effective if he wasn't an absolute beanpole who stood less than a foot taller than me.

I sighed, already tired of him. "You must be Patrice."

The Lupus preened slightly, bearing his fangs in a wolfish grin. "I see you've heard of me."

"Yes," Tanya said flatly. "I've heard of all of you. They briefed everybody before bringing them in. You aren't special."

I hid my snicker behind my fist. Patrice glared at her. "Your brain is absolutely fucked, weirdo."

Tanya cringed at that. I glowered at him. "Get bent, loser. Just because someone called you on your BS doesn't mean--"

"Ooh!" Patrice leered at me. "You dreamed about fucking your mom."

I shut right the heck up.

"Yeah," Patrice drawled lazily, checking out his nails, "I'm a Telepath. Her brain looks like shredded cheese, and yours is oozing with pent-up sexual aggression. You want me to help you with that, trust me. I can fuck you stupid, because I know exactly what you want. And what you want is my knot."

Picture a house. That house is your brain. Now put up big walls around your house. Nobody gets past the walls to your house. They are forty feet high and made of iron. Put spikes on the walls. The spikes are made of stone, not iron, dark gray, pebbly and cruel-shaped. Dig a moat around the walls, twenty feet wide and ten feet deep. Smell the freshly-worked earth. Now fill it with--

--theeere it was. Van's old training worked. Patrice yelped as a tear of blood dripped out of his right eye and left ear. He looked at me like some kind of monster. "What the fuck...?"

Not many people knew Ollivander had been a Telepath. It was super rare among Lontramar, he'd said. Most Gifted otter-folk had Sight. He used to drill us in mental exercises to block Telepathy. Telepaths could do more than read your mind, he'd said. They could implant suggestions and meddle with your perceptions. If they were strong enough, they could even take over your higher brain functions. One guy he knew could control a person's autonomic systems if he got in, just tell their heart to stop beating. His training on the matter had been short, brutal, and effective.

"Try and get in again, asshole," I whispered. "I added an acid moat."

Patrice looked like he wanted to murder me, but instead he slinked off to bat sullenly at the tetherball. Tanya stared at me with wide eyes. "You've had training," she muttered. "You have a Gift."

I shrugged awkwardly. "If I do, I dunno what it is. I just had a teacher for a while, is all."

Tanya shook her head in wonder. "Can we have sex?"

I opened my mouth to respond, then snapped it shut again, and twice more, before I managed, "Uh."

"If you're nice, I won't hurt you like the others," she promised. "If you don't hurt me."

"I'm... I'm good," I managed. "Thanks though." I suddenly felt wildly uncomfortable around her. Others? What others? "I'm gonna go check on my brother. It was uh... it was nice meeting you, Tanya."

Tanya just kept giving me that blank stare, but I'm pretty sure there was some disappointment in there too. "Okay. Bye."

I got away from her as quickly as I could without running. When I reached my brother's rickety wheelchair, the old Lupus woman was sitting cross-legged in front of him, gabbing away happily. "--up to two-ten now!" she said with a proud, wolfy grin.

Leon smiled kindly. "That's awesome, Val. I don't think I could manage half that."

I stepped up and rubbed Leon's ear. "Hey, bro. Who's your new friend?"

Leon looked up sheepishly at me. I knew who she was; Agnes had told me during our many conversations while my brother had been in stasis. I was a little ashamed to realize he'd saved her life days before the Warden had snatched me up, and he'd never told me because we'd sort of been fighting about Rika at the time. I'd heard he'd saved someone, but not the details.

"Sis, this is Val. Val, this is my sister, Nola."

Val waved cheerfully at me. She looked like she was maybe in her late fifties, though that could have been from her time in the Pit. Her chalky gray fur was patchy, but clearly starting to grow back in. Apparently, she'd been away from the Pit for at least a few weeks. Her fur would never have a glossy coat again, but she'd probably have an even one eventually.

"Hi, Nola. Your brother's a peach."

Leon's ears just about vibrated, he was so embarrassed. I snickered and rubbed his scalp. "Yeah, I'm pretty fond of him." I looked back at her. "I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation. What were you talking about?"

"Weightlifting," Leon said. He pointed at the bench where Val had been earlier. "She's up to two hundred pounds."

I felt stupid again. "Is... is that a lot?"

Val had the good grace not to look at me like I was as stupid as I felt. Instead she waggled her hand. "Eh. It's alright? Pretty good for a gal my age, anyway."

"Bah," Leon said dismissively. "You can't possibly be that old. What are you, thirty? Thirty-five?"

Val laughed, a deep, rich sound that made my stomach feel warm. "You're a charmer! No need to flatter, sweetie. I'm sixty-two."

I blinked. "Wow. I don't think he's flattering. You really don't look sixty-two."

"Oh, heck," Val said bashfully. "You're heating me up. Anyway, Leon, if you want pointers some time just holler at me. Happy to spot you if you wanna do some reps."

Leon's face dropped. "I only have the one arm."

Val waved a hand. "So? Just means you lift half as much to start with. Good for you, too. Get some balance coordination back. I had a buddy, lost his arm in the War, had to relearn a few things because you're used to doing 'em two-handed. Weightlifting was one. But he did okay in the end. Said the hardest thing to relearn to do without two hands was take a piss." She snorted.

I frowned. "I don't get it. Why did he need two hands?"

Val erupted in laughter again, and Leon hid his face in his hand. What did I miss?

* * *

About an hour later, the positions had altered slightly. Tanya sat with Kiba at a table, and after watching them for a few minutes, I was too mystified to tell what they were doing, but Kiba was talking at least, albeit in hushed, meek tones. Val had Patrice off by the weights, chatting excitedly as the teenage Lupus tried desperately to impress her with how much he could lift. I was pleased to see it wasn't much.

I sat in the grass in the middle of the Yard with my arm wrapped around Leon. He'd slipped out of his wheelchair to sit with me in the soft grass only after several minutes of prodding and begging. Now he leaned against me and stared at his feet. I reached across his lap and grabbed his left hand, holding it tightly. I knew he was in his own head again and I wished like heck I knew how to pull him out of it.

After a minute of sitting like that, he twitched in my arms. I sat up a little to look at him and realized it hadn't been a twitch, but a sob. Tears streamed out of his eyes. "Leon...?"

He squeezed his eyes shut, like he was trying to block out my voice. I tried not to take it personally, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. I squeezed his hand again, trying to remind him I was there. Finally, he drooped his head onto my shoulder and started sobbing harder. I glanced up to make sure nobody was staring at him; everyone else was either busy or too far away to hear. I breathed a sigh of relief, then released his hand to stroke the side of his face, humming something probably really out of tune. We weren't awful familiar with music, and pretty much all I knew was the lullaby Mom used to sing to us.

We sat like that for awhile, not sure how long. Eventually he whispered, "I miss her."

I felt a stab in my chest. I knew who he was talking about. I guess I kinda knew she was the reason for his moodiness too. "I'm sure she's okay," I muttered, gently stroking the base of his ears. He always liked that spot. I always liked touching it.

Okay that sounded weird. I mean, I enjoyed stroking him--you know what? Let's drop it.

He shuddered. "It's been months. You... you know what that place does. S-she was... she was gonna..." He couldn't finish the sentence. I wasn't sure I wanted him to. I felt heat in my cheeks, mean heat. Jealous heat. I didn't have any more right to my brother's time than anyone else, I knew that logically, but Rika scared me. What she could mean. Leon was all I had left, and she wanted to take him as her own.

A tiny panic bloomed in my chest. What if she came to the Spike? What if she weaseled her way in somehow? I'd never see my brother again. They'd spend all their time doing... stuff... and he'd forget all about me. Panic was probably what made me do something stupid.

"Hey," I muttered, licking his cheek. "At least you still have me, right?" He nodded miserably, and I licked his cheek again. Then I licked his neck, and his shoulder. Maybe a tongue bath would cheer him up, like when we were little. Or the time I bathed his tummy last year and tasted his... oh, gods, this was a terrible idea.

And yet I kept bathing him. He had a shirt now, which was annoying, but I didn't want to be so obvious as to lift it up. Instead, I licked his collarbone, gently moving my head under his to see if he'd let me lick his throat. After a tense moment where he seemed to be frozen, he slowly raised his chin. I felt my loins react with a faint tingle to the movement. Gods, I was really doing this. I'd wanted to so badly the moment I tasted his stuff on his tummy. Salty and bittersweet. I wanted to taste it again. What the heck was wrong with me?

I ran my tongue slowly up the inside of his neck, along his throat, and he whimpered. No more tingles, I was fully wet now. I glanced up; nobody was looking--except the little Ysoki girl. She hid her gaze under the hood of her shirt, but I could see her little red eyes staring at me. Well, no stopping now. Might as well give her a show.

I started back down at the nape of his neck and slowly drew my tongue back up his throat, each time easing a whimper out of him. I glanced down to see his loose pants tenting heavily. I wanted desperately to grab it and stroke it, but I was scared he'd make me stop. Maybe I should have stopped. He tasted forbidden. It made my pussy drip even more; I could feel it running down my leg. Please don't make me stop, Leon.

Every lick ended a little further up his chin. Eventually, I licked just under his lips, and Leon whispered, "Nola... stop..."

I didn't want to stop. I wanted to make him stay with me. I didn't want to lose him. I started again at the nape of his neck, and he didn't stop me. I pulled my tongue up his chin, and he didn't stop me. I licked up, over his sweet lips, and pushed my tongue gently into his mouth.

Leon jerked away, his eyes absolute panic. "N-Nola--!"

I cringed away from him. I couldn't look him in the eye, now. I knew I'd gone too far. Why had I done that?? Idiot. Stupidstupidstupid.

Leon crawled up into his wheelchair, laid a hand over his tented pants, and caved into himself again. I slunk away to the benches in the far corner, buried my head into my hands, and cried.

* * *

They eventually led us out of the Yard and to our private rooms. I showered, but I didn't touch myself this time. I'd made a complete ass of myself and wasn't feeling very frisky. I slumped onto my bed and stared at the wall. Why had I done that? I wasn't attracted to my own brother! Right? I was just jealous of Rika because she wanted to take him from me, take my only family away from me. Not because she got to be filled up with his thick cock every night I was gone, taking his seed inside her, making kittens in her woooh gods I figured it out.

He'd almost said it aloud. "She was gonna..." She was gonna have my kittens.

I started crying again. I really was the freaking worst.