Ch. 60
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Trainer
It had been two weeks since we parted ways with Wendy. It was the sensible choice, turn myself into a bit of a beacon while she slipped away to go back to her own life for a while. Safer. Even if there was a mutual sense of melancholy to be had about it. I made sure to stop by every pokecenter all the way back to the desert in that time. Poor Penance never breathed a word of complaint, but I'm sure it wasn't the easiest task.
Being at that sanctuary had been a damned shackle around my leg. Geotagged my trainer ID, tagged Wendy, too. Anyone with the means could have run a search. Our tablets might as well have been flashing lights and sirens for as subtle as we were, carrying them. The only saving grace is that nobody else had actually seen Wendy, that I knew of. She was present, but that was all. So separating was just the sensible choice. Different routes away, different timeframes. Draw them off of her.
Helena had been true to her word, taken to training with the others. I could tell she hated it, being corrected, getting knocked about, being corrected again. It wasn't her style at all. But while she cussed and muttered, she didn't quit. For my part I'd traded off sparring with Tempest and Cocoa, and practicing my punches and kicks against whatever tree was closest to our camp. Occasionally disturbing the sleep of the poor hapless pokemon in the branches, and more often than not nursing cuts and bruises the next morning.
Mira seldom left my side, and Claire more listened than approached my thoughts, but her presence never left me. Unfortunately for us both, answers were not forthcoming. I was troubled, by everything, by too much to put into words. I was anxious and worried and stressed and while I had a vague notion of where I was trying to get us, how to get there seemed an impossible gulf of distance to cross.
We doubled back, through the wilderness, Penance carrying my bag through desert and over hills, a straight line, as much as we could, back to the home of my birth. I'd removed the battery from the tablet, if it was dead maybe they wouldn't catch on to our ruse so easily. It was a long shot, but I took it anyway. Anything, any thread of chance to hold on to. For my part, I walked beside everyone, kept my hands free, the hatchet close, and an eye toward the shadows.
At night, I tended the fire, honed the hatchet against a flat rock I'd found and carried with us. As if it would make any real difference at this point. It was about as sharp as anyone was going to get it, but the weight of it in my hand was a comforting thing. I got some practice in with it, too. It was easy enough to incorporate it into my fighting, but throwing it with any success did not come as readily. I'd keep trying though... and if that bastard gave me another chance, one way or another, I'd make sure he took it with him.
Mira
I hated feeling his worry, the way it gnawed at him in the quiet moments. The way he'd startle at sounds when we camped at night. The constant stress. I know we helped, ease away the tension, take some of the burden, but at the end of the night, he was still there, that cold lump of metal held closer than any of us, gazing out into the darkness, his back to the fire.
The song of his heart was discordant, a low and constant turmoil. He did everything he could to put us at ease, trained with us and played with us and kept us fed. But happy was something we didn't have. Hadn't had in a while.
Among other things we weren't getting lately.
It wasn't just him, either. Helena had taken to sitting up at night by herself, not far from us. Just. Far enough. Would awake panicked more often than not. She had shrugged it off the few times I'd asked, and it wasn't hard to understand she didn't feel like talking about it.
It wasn't despair, the mood that hung over us. But it was becoming something close.
And there wasn't much I could do.
Helena
It wasn't a bad plan, the backtracking, the escape. I doubted it would buy us much time, but it was still better than nothing. Maybe we'd slip away, disappear for a while. I knew better than anyone that it wouldn't last forever. Never did. As much as I could wish I was invisible, that wasn't going to happen.
It seemed he understood it too.
I could feel it sitting next to him. The tension radiating off of him in waves. He never voiced a complaint and sometimes it felt like I was sitting next to Annabelle again. But there wasn't resentment this time. He guarded his heart because he had to, not because he wanted to. I understood that now. Thanks to her. I finally understood that. So I stayed near. I didn't ask for more than that. Not yet.
And every night he practiced, and he trained. When the others were getting what sleep they could, I'd watch him. Exercise until his body finally gave out, and let him get something close to sleep. Anything near it. And when he did, I'd go nudge Claire, and we'd trade places. I'd get some rest and she'd do what she could for him.
I'd have traded my horn to be able to help the way she could. To be able to do anything else but wait. Wait, and hope.
It wasn't a bad plan. I'd just have to keep telling myself that.
Cocoa
Seemed like everyone was gettin' a little frayed at the edges. Weren't nobody snappin' at each other, but felt like maybe it was only a matter of time. Master kept us moving, didn't lock us away. Maybe we could have covered more ground if he had, but I reckon felt like he needed to do it this way. Keep his promises, maybe? Or he was scared an' didn't wanna say so. I didn't understand, an' I weren't gonna ask. In the mornings, he milked me. Took the pressure off, helped everyone get a bit of breakfast. Was nice to watch him savor somethin', still. For all he was burnin' that candle at both ends, at least I could keep him from goin' hungry.
An' I did my part for him, as I could. Rubbed his back, and his legs. Poor dear was knots an' bruises, didn't seem to know he was walkin' with a limp. Didn't notice. Just put another mile behind him, another after. Where he went, I went. All there was to it. Whatever he needed me to be right now. Keepin' my promises, too.
We trained at night, every night, no matter how tired he was, no matter how tired we were. An' we were. We all were. Even Mira had begun to waver after the fourth day. But he kept us motivated. Put his all into it, so how could we do anythin' less? Knew it was for a good reason. Just how things were right now. So I'd encourage her, an' make sure everyone got a snack after, when he cleaned up an' got us ready to turn in.
At the rate we were goin', I could'a almost wished ma were here with me. I was as drained as any pump had ever managed, an' then some.
Besides, he weren't much for conversation lately. Not that I was blamin' him or nothin', but... I was missin' the sweet lover I had in my arms before all'a this.
Trainer
It had taken us some time, out of the woods and across the mountains, through the countryside back to the resort town by the beach. Camped out in secret under the pier. Not the only ones doing so, perhaps the only ones actually hiding from anything. Trainers passing through, too broke for a hotel, surfers and beach bums hanging around low camp fires, toasting marshmallows and singing with their pokemon companions.
I envied their freedom. I missed the freedom we had before all of this. I kept myself close to the wall, Claire in the sand with me. My bag between us. As low a profile as I dared, my hatchet buried in the sand next to me, an easy grab. I'd rented a cheap room and booked tickets, between the purchases, I was stretched a lot more thinly than I'd liked. We'd be alright. Probably. I didn't want to have to beg or borrow, but I knew it was a real possibility.
But that meant my name was on registers. If anyone came looking, they'd start at that hotel, put themselves on that cruise. There was nothing I could do. I'd have to hope that the little ruse dragging my name east was enough. That they were wondering where they'd lost me in the desert. I still didn't dare power up the tablet. As close to radio silence as I could get. I'd considered throwing it in the water, but it would have been worse if someone else found it. Worse for them, maybe.
For a dark hour I considered it. Slipping away, stowing it in someone else's bag, but I wasn't craven enough to make someone else a target. Not like that. Although, the thought did give me an idea. A few ideas, in truth. Thoughts to file away, maybe I'd need them, maybe I wouldn't. But the idea wasn't the worst.
Tonight, tomorrow, we'd camp out under the pier, take a stroll away, spend a few hours along the beach in the dark. Hope that nobody figured out my feint. If we could just get away long enough, it would take them ages to track us down again. I'd have an answer for it by then, surely. Surely.
That was the idea, at least.
Claire
Arceus be damned, I should've taken a shot at that miserable bastard when I'd had the chance. First the trip through the woods, all the damned mud and grass in my fur. The bad weather master was too distracted to even notice. The way he was wearing himself out every day just trying to get us away. Then having to wait, caged up like a misbehaving meowth until he could board that ship. A ship that by all rights should have been nothing more than a happy, lovely little rest for him? That he was going to end up feeling trapped on, wondering if every passing glance was someone after him?
I should have killed that bastard when I'd had the chance.
So it was, another night I sat up, hidden in the shadows with him, soothing away his nightmares as best as I could, my own fur bristling at his unease and every passing sound in the dark. His worry becoming my worry, gnawing hunger radiating from him for how little he'd had to eat since we got here. He didn't even dare go look for food like he should have. Whatever we had in the bag had to be enough.
And he made sure we all ate, even if he didn't.
Helena had scolded him about it already, there was no point in adding my own four letter words to it. She was rubbing off on me, but maybe that's what he needed right now.
Tomorrow. I knew tomorrow would be better. The ship was docking at dawn, and they'd start boarding in the evening. It had to get better, right?
Trainer
It was hard to believe I'd actually done it, even as we stood on the deck, staring down into the harbor. The thought of leaving across the ocean rattled me. Unnerved me. It felt that barely a year ago, I had scarcely been out of my home town, save for trips to dojos and tournaments. Nothing, certainly, like what I was doing now.
We'd booked a luxury cruise, two weeks by sea, on a ship that seemed to dwarf the port it sat in. Our room was a beautiful little cabin on the starbord side. A bit low, a bit toward the back, certainly not the most expensive or luxurious suite, but still; we were there. We were leaving for a tropical paradise.
I had no idea what we'd find when we got there. I couldn't know in that moment, how far we would go. It was exhilirating. It was terrifying.
We were all exhausted that day, and seeing as we wouldn't actually be departing before the following day, we simply took a meal in the room, and spent our time alternating between whatever sleep we could get, and mutually nervous banter about what we'd do on the cruise.
It was an unusual thing. For us, at least. A luxury cruise. Amenities for people, and for pokemon. Helena had already decided on a massage, and was planning to drag Penance along. As tempting as that sounded, Cocoa and Mira had already decided they'd be spending the first day, as much as was feasable, in the dining hall enjoying every last bite of a buffet. Tempest and Claire were a little more reserved, but ultimately settled on watching the exhibition matches on the upper decks.
Which left me to my own devices for the first time I could recall in months. I didn't want the girls to have a hard time finding me, but I also didn't want to keep them from having their fun. One day spent by the pool wouldn't be any big loss, although when I said so, there was no small amount of ribbing about enjoying the eye candy.
"I'm not saying it'll be a bad time. I might get a few laps, a little sun. Read a book. But make sure to check in every now and then. Otherwise I'm going to worry." I was trying to be sensible, easy to find, not hovering. Let my girls actually relax for a change.
Claire teased me, a little laugh and a tilt of her head. "Oh, sure. Let us interrupt all that delightful boredom." She winked at me, nudging my shoulder with the palm of her hand before continuing. "This is supposed to be a vacation for you, and while we're glad to be right here next to you, don't you think you might enjoy at least a little time not having to devote all your energy to us? Look around. Swim. Go to the arcade. Get a massage. Find a cute girl. Find two, for all I mind. We'll keep an eye on each other. So why don't you just look for some fun?"
I'd opened my mouth to offer some kind of protest, but Mira all but shoved a ribbon in it as soon as I started. Her silky soft fur tasted vaguely of soap, and she held me there for a moment, silently glaring until I nodded, mutely.
"Good boy." She said, removing the ribbon at last. "You're going to do exactly what we said. Have. Fun. Whatever that means to you. If you really want that swim, go for it. But you know, seems a waste to me. We're going to be surrounded. By water. For months. If you want to read that book, have a blast. But you know, that also seems stupid to me. We're going to have down time. A lot of it. For months. You know what we're not going to have?" She more demanded than asked, not even waiting for me to reply. "Two weeks on a luxury cruise ship! Massages and buffets, battles, and bikin- well, okay so there'll be plenty of those too, but you can't tell me you haven't been looking forward to it!"
Tempest laughed at that, and let go of her grip on Claire long enough to take my hand in hers. "There's nothing I wouldn't give you. I'd live and die for you. So give me this. Let me have this, that you can trust me. Trust us enough to let your guard down for just a little while. For now, won't you please just trust us?"
Her words stung, and for a long time everyone was silent. She wasn't wrong. Our misadventure had changed me. Not for the better. Too many nights I sat holding that hatchet, staring out into the darkness as if every shadow were an enemy. Too many dreams of all the times and ways I'd failed, all the ways I needed to be saved when it should have been me protecting them.
"I'll try." It was the best I could offer. Thankfully, nobody asked more than that. The evening was tempered with a sense of melancholy, and I struggled with words, tried to explain what I hadn't even fully made sense of in my own mind.
They were right. I already knew that. But I'd been jumping at shadows for weeks. It was as if I could feel him, lurking. Waiting. Biding his time until my hand didn't grip that hatchet quite so tight. Until I didn't stay up quite so late keeping watch. Until I let my guard down just enough that he could make his move. I'd spent every idle moment practicing, training, throwing punches and kicks until bruises on top of bruises threatened to become broken bones.
I was pushing myself too hard, too often. I was falling apart, and I knew it. Better than anyone.
What I didn't know was what to do about it.
Mira stayed up with me that night. One of them always did, taking turns in a rotation I didn't understand. Or perhaps it wasn't something planned. She was there, her ribbons around bruised knuckles. They'd been healing, but what I'd done to them would take a few more days. It seemed I spent as much time nursing new scrapes and bruises as I did creating them for myself. I expected her to scold me. To say something. I doubted she could have said anything I hadn't already figured out, but after an hour with no words forthcoming, I just resigned myself to quiet company.
I'd been having quite a bit of that lately.
Mira
I could feel it. All his turmoil. All his anxiety. Every moment I was with him, it prickled at my senses. Pins and needles, a kind of gnawing anxiety in the pit of my stomach. The feeling of being watched, constantly. The idea that if I even blinked wrong, it would all be over. And this was his life now. His every waking moment, and most of what few resting ones he managed. I could feel it, but I didn't know what to do about it. Nobody did. We hoped that distance, and time would help. We'd hoped perhaps he could find distractions enough to just... enjoy being, for a while.
We hadn't shared intimacy in weeks. He couldn't. Between the fatigue and the stress, he simply ceased to function that way. There was no enticing him. there was nothing we could do. Even that had been denied us.
Helena had several creative epithets about the bastard that caused all of this. The rest of us had a slowly simmering rage. Even Cocoa fully intended to kill the man, next she saw him.
Even I did.
I didn't realize I had been gripping him so tightly, until his hands gently untangled my ribbons, scooped me up, cradled me close. His nose buried in my fur, I could feel every breath on my skin. It was the closest he had been to relaxed since the night we almost lost him. But whatever he was thinking was locked up tight. Even Claire couldn't prize it out of him. Only vague notions of crimson anger, violet shame. It wasn't that he was keeping it from her, exactly. It was fragmented, half-formed at best. A whirlwind of images and feelings that he didn't have words for.
At first, I thought he'd licked me, then I heard the sniffle. As my ribbons snaked around him, soft, sinuous, stroking every bit of him I could manage, I felt it. The weight of it all, of Tempest's words, perhaps. Of mine. Of all our worry for him. Cracked his surface like glass, and all the pressure seemed to explode out at once.
I could feel his hand at my back, straining hard open, forcing himself to do anything except clutch me as tightly as he could. The other gripped the bedding so tightly his knuckles popped, then his wrist. It was as if he were trying to cram every feeling back into place, but the proverbial jinn was out of the bottle... and the bottle was no more.
Claire was there first, my feelings of alarm reached her even in her sleep, her arms around him, taking his hands, wincing as he gripped her tight. But she didn't let go, didn't pull away. Tempest next, her first instinct to sweep between Master's bed and the door, as if to shield him, before what was happening caught up to her. The weight of her behind me made the whole of the bed sag, and I was briefly trapped between her, and Master. I was grateful then, when he shifted to let me up a little, as I had no intention of trying to struggle out of it.
I couldn't say what happened next. A lot of things happened at once. I could feel it though. Pain. Loss. Regret. Love. Bitterness. The feeling, distinct now, formed fully, of having failed. Of having disappointed someone. Of having disappointed someone and being left alone for it. Underneath all of it, behind that bitter chaos there was this... this void. This loneliness. Stark and cold. So great, so profound it paralyzed me. For a moment, I couldn't breathe. It wasn't just loneliness. It was fear. Raw and jagged like claws twisting in his chest.
Filtered through Claire it all began to make sense, her thoughts, his thoughts, my feelings. There he was, clutching the bedding so tight as if he might lose everything if he let go for even a moment. Trying to hold back a flood behind a leaky dam because what might happen when it broke. All this time, trying to be the one to shoulder it. Every late night. Every panic attack bit back and held in, and never spoken of. Just like all the other things he didn't talk about. The ones we'd slowly learned in bits and pieces.
There was a moment, seared, scarred into his memory, vivid and bright that Claire didn't need to show it to me, imprinted in my thoughts in a painful, overwhelming way. Standing in front of the ruined cabin, and choosing to pursue them. In his mind he was a monster, it was horrific, unconscionable. To put us at risk, to put us in harm's way. Vivid flashes of what came next. Of almost losing us. All of us. Of asking us to fight a losing fight and having no idea what to do, and being so afraid of losing us that he couldn't breathe. Faking it, the whole time, any confidence at all. Trying to hide the tremor in his hand by gripping the hatchet a little tighter.
Afraid of having made the wrong choice, of what it would cost us. Of what he would have to live with. Or die with. And carrying it every moment since, looped in his memory. Trapped there.
He was trapped there. One more failure in a long string of them. That was his interpretation of it. Of all of it. Of himself.
Piece by piece, Claire gave to me... to us all, the memories that formed. From the day we first met, where he'd risked it all out of sheer impatience and frustration. A bet he should never have made. To the argument he'd had with Tempest, and how he'd not only managed to almost get himself killed, but in his mind, somewhere lurking in that darkness, could have killed us all for trying to save him. To the way he failed to protect Claire the night she evolved to her true powers. To the way he couldn't even finish the journey for her. Culminating in how he put Helena at risk, put us at risk to try and defend that place...
But in his mind, the crowning failure was his pursuit of them... and taking us along with him. In his mind, failure, after failure... and now he ran, and dragged us with. No choice, no say.
I had no idea how to face it, how to put him back together. I didn't know. I don't think any of us did. It was a moment suspended in time, none of us seemed to have the will to move. After all, what could we do? What could we say?
It was Helena who spoke up first. I was grateful it was her, that it didn't have to be me.
"Life is hard... and it's not fair." Words she repeated to him three or four times, her claws against his chest, from where she lay by his shoulder. Her head coming to rest upon him as he acknowledged her with a touch, his hand leaving me to slip through her fur and rest at her side as he struggled to contain himself, to contain all of it. "Life is hard... and it's not fucking fair, and there aren't a lot of perfect choices. Most of the time, you... me... all of us, the whole damned world, we just make it up as we go, and fuckin' hope. If we even fucking dare do that."
"You defended me. Protected me. Protected things that were important to me. Fuck's sake. However it turned out, you were there when nobody had ever just... been there for me. You didn't ask anything of me. Didn't expect me to do the things so many others have, even when I told you I would, out of sheer fucking habit. Out of fucking desperation. You were just there, and that's what I fell in love with first. That's why I went with you, when you needed someone at your side. No matter how it turned out, I was going to fight at your side, because it was right. Because it was fair in a world that isn't, and because I wanted to be with you. I don't regret it. I don't regret what might have happened because I was with you. I only just met you; Imagine how everyone else felt, to be there at your side, you asshole!"
Penance, from the foot of the bed, brought one of her massive paws up, coming to rest on Master's leg, where the bone had been broken twice, in the past year. Where the ridges of the knitting were. Where we knew he ached sometimes. For all he tried to hide it. As Master tried to sit himself up a bit, it was Tempest who brought one of her broad hands to his back, to support and cradle him. His head to rest against her chest, as she shifted her weight to give him somewhere warm, soft, safe. For a moment, Penance didn't say a word, just stared, opened her mouth, but the words wouldn't come. Swallowed past her own turmoil. All her hurt for him.
Her first words were pained, but as she spoke, her voice steadied. "When I was alone... truly alone, standing beside someone who had once been my best friend in the world. Like Helena said; you were there. Listened to every word. Every hurt. Cared." She paused, and nuzzled against him, the bed sagged as she held herself halfway up on it. She spoke vehemently then, met his gaze and held it. "You loved me more than I believed myself even worth loving. Listened in a way I hadn't felt since I was little, with a little girl friend who had little girl problems and only her growlithe to hear them. You didn't ask me anything in return. You wouldn't even let me do the things I desperately wanted to, because you were worried how I'd feel about it later. You loved me more than anyone ever had, more than I even understood then. My only thought, that day... when I threw myself into the fight... was to beg the sun itself that I might just be helpful to you. That I might make any difference at all for you. No matter how it went, no matter what it cost me. I wanted to be that for you. And I still do. You weren't alone to bear it then, and you aren't alone to bear it now. I promised I'd carry you, when your own strength faltered. Let me."
Tempest murmured agreement on that note, took Master's hand from the bedding he finally relinquished, and led it to her scarred face. "It wasn't the first time I fought for you. It won't be the last. You're my master. You're my friend. You're my mate. I'd sooner these claws soaked in the blood of a hundred other men than a single tear from your eyes. I will always fight for you, and always be proud to. Win, lose, who cares? I'm with you. Let them come."
Cocoa, for her part, clambered clumsily up on the bed, her weight causing the whole of it to sag toward her. Claire flailed for a moment as she found her back against Cocoa's belly. "Can't sleep? Rest in my lap, darlin'. Doubtin'? Y'can come home to my love. Hurtin'? Y'can tell me anythin'. Needy? Sugar, I'd do anythin' for ya. I'd fight for ya, too, an' jus' try'n' stop me. Y'taught me how, an' showed me I'm more'n capable. Got the badge to prove it, too, don't I? But that's not what you really need of me, is it? Let me be what you need. I want to, besides. Any time, anywhere, an' anything, lover. Ain't a thing y'could ask me t' do for you I wouldn't. I'm yours... an' sugar? You're mine."
Claire looked to me, and for a moment I just felt... broken. I had no idea what to say, or how to say it, and all I could do was wrap him up in paws and ribbons and cry. I just wanted my friend back; the one who sat and laughed with me. The one who took me on dates and played in the park, and sat up late telling me how much I meant to him. The one I fell in love with. The one I gave myself to so gladly. The one I wanted to spend my whole life with. I wanted him back.
I didn't realize I was shouting it at him until I heard everyone else crying.
Claire
It had been building on us all for a while. It didn't surprise me someone finally cracked. She loved him, and, maybe more than any of us, she relied on him. Took her cues from him. From his moods, his feelings. Every time she couldn't lift his spirit, hers fell instead. It wasn't intentional, and it wasn't his fault, but piece by piece, he'd brought her so low that ... this was the only real outcome anyone could've expected.
He held her. For the longest time he held her, and he cried with her. We all did. We all felt the same way. She put it into words in a way none of us could have. We all wanted to be there for him... but we needed him back, first.
I couldn't say just how much time had passed when he got up, but it was with a look in his eyes I hadn't seen since I was a braixen. We all watched as he went to his bag, and pulled that hatchet out, watched as he went out to the balcony, overlooking the harbor. He stared at it for the longest time, and then we all watched as he gripped it tight... then... tossed it into the water.
I could feel it. Hell. We could see it. Being free of the weight of it. His shoulders seemed to sag, and as he came back in, he felt like he'd aged years to do it. Fatigue and stress and hurt all catching up at once as he slid down at the foot of the bed. Disarmed, as he was, I could feel his uncertainty radiating off of him in waves. Penance was the closest to him, and reached him first... but we all weren't far behind.
He cried himself to sleep that night, and despite the big, fancy bed, we all slept on the floor with him. The first night in... I couldn't even say how long that he slept the whole night through. The first night in longer than I realized, that I didn't have to take away his nightmares, soothe him from the trembling, take him out of those moments again.
In the morning, I woke first to his hand on my hip. He'd managed to wrap me up in his arms, even half-smothered by Penance. A playful flicker in his consciousness, bright and golden, as his hand slid a little lower... and I rolled my hips against him. Felt him feeling me up. It had been so long since he had, that I didn't even think about where we were, or that we weren't the only ones awake. I returned the favor, a brush of tail against him, my mind and his meeting somewhere in the middle. It was like I was watching the sunrise, the colors, the brightness. His awareness and mine becoming one. No more walls, no more boundaries, no more of him trying to hold it all in.
Every touch was reassurance to him. That he wasn't alone. That he would never truly be alone. He melted into my hands and again, with a trembling, brush of his fingertips through my thick fur as I took him into my mouth. Until his own hair tickled at my nose while I lapped at him with all my heart. My tongue wrapped around him as much as it could manage, my head bobbing there, pushing into him and pulling away in all the ways I knew he liked. Mira's ribbons joined in, slipping between his thighs, beneath me, as she sat at his free hand, demanding her attentions too. She bit back the whimper but sank down on his digits, roughly. He pushed. She pushed, and somewhere between the three of us, the wet noises were joined in with a muffled moan as Cocoa knelt on either side of his head, rode his eager mouth while Tempest pushed the miltank's ever increasingly vocal mouth between her muscular thighs.
Helena and Penance sat it out at first, but I put on a show, and enjoyed my own, watching the two writhe subtly, as if to take my place at his cock in their own thoughts. Helena was the first to move, to my side, cheek to cheek. "Please." That she was polite was shocking enough that I obliged without a second thought, letting her lap at his crown and slowly take it into her mouth. She was passionate, if a little clumsy, and only succeeded in gagging on him. I thought it was an accident, but she did it again, and again, until he took the hint. His hand grasped for her head blindly, but she had other ideas, instead leading him to her horn, to pull her into it exactly how he wanted. She whimpered and moaned as he used her, and the sight of it made me want what she was getting.
Penance's tongue at my sex was a good consolation prize. A very good consolation prize. The broad, hot muscle pushed against me, pushed into me so eagerly that I found myself bucking back against her. It felt as if it were everywhere at once, and moved with a ferocity I hadn't expected. The heat of her breath and the way she whimpered as someone began to play with her, in turn set me gushing and it was all I could do to not simply fall atop her. Again and again, her relentless assault on my senses drove me to my peaks without the courtesy of a valley between. I was breathless and exhausted, my stomach ached from how tight it had clenched when I finally came down from my high, her broad paws around me, cradling me tight.
The alarm going off to wake us felt perfectly timed, as Master had finally untangled himself from limbs and ribbons and Helena lavishing affection on his spent orbs until he teasingly pushed at her cheek. Her nip at his backside as he turned sent him fumbling to the bed, but before he could rouse a protest, she was licking him from behind. Violet embarrassment and a shock of searing white hot intense pleasure as her tongue ran from those orbs to his ass without a hint of hesitation. His thoughts hit me with a surprising vehemence.
'Didn't know I was into that!'
Neither did I, but as his stomach growled, Helena did finally relent, with only the slightest teasing.
"Fine, fucker. We'll go eat, but before today's done, I'm going to do at least one thing for you I've never done for anyone else. So you'd better be ready."