Chapter 8
“Well, you really are a screamer,” Donna said when I came down the stairs with Inkiri behind me.
Donna was in the kitchen, boiling the kettle, and Wilson was standing at the foot of the stairs and staring up at us.
“I think you traumatized Wilson.” Donna pointed at the chicken with her as-yet empty mug.
I turned millet bean red. “I, uhm, I thought you were outside?”
“Honey, I live here. And frankly, you two should’ve put a sock on the front door. A really, really big sock.”
Inkiri clicked and walked past me, then he towed me the rest of the way down the stairs, past Wilson, who clucked as soon as she saw him.
For all I knew, she thought I’d been doing something really bad to him.
Did her people tell stories about the big factories they sent the older chickens to?
The factories chicken wings were made in?
“Donna, do not joke. My mate is already sensitive when it comes to talking about his pleasure.”
Donna giggled, and Wilson followed us as we walked over to the kitchen table.
“Communication, Rory. It’s so important in a relationship,” Donna told me. I was trying to hide behind Inkiri, but he kept pulling me against his side. “Especially with these guys. Although I really drilled the consensual carrying into them.” She did a little bow. “You may thank me.”
I flushed deeper, wondering how she knew, but then I realized she wasn’t talking about Inkiri holding me while being speared on his cock, just…the normal-type carrying when walking would have sufficed.
I cleared my throat. “Thank you very much. He definitely asked when we first met.”
Donna chuckled to herself and poured boiling water over her tea bag.
The sound of the conservatory door and then the glass door into the living room opening saved me from any more discussions about carrying or pleasure.
Kinnek walked into the kitchen, making about as much noise as Vergis normally did, which was none at all.
“Good, you’re dressed already. Buttercup, you really are happy with your bagu mate, aren’t you?
” I almost breathed a sigh of relief at the seemingly tame statement from Kinnek—or any bagu, really—but then he tacked on: “Even with his barb?”
I hadn’t really appreciated how good being unconscious was when the people around you wanted to talk about everything with the same vigor a horde of sex-ed teachers might.
I heard Donna gasp. Wilson clucked, but there was no way the chicken understood what a barb was. Right?
“Did he just…? Did you just…? Wait.” Donna’s tea steamed on the counter, but she was in front of me, leaning on the kitchen table and looking up at Inkiri, then down at me, then up again. “Are you telling me your bagu cock is like a cat’s cock? That’s…fascinating.”
I stared at her. “Fascinating?!”
She shrugged. “I’m a biologist by training, so yeah. Fascinating.”
The glass door opened and closed again, which was my only indication that Vergis was about to join us. Oh, joy.
“Your penises lock inside your partner, then?” Donna went on, looking from Kinnek to Inkiri now.
“Only a hangu-na’s,” Kinnek said, which felt like too much information. Really, bagu were a different species. Shouldn’t they do their best to keep an air of mystery about them?
Vergis whistled before he came into view. “Oh, are we discussing fetishes?”
Donna shook her head. “No, just dicks. Although, to be clear, even if I weren’t ace, I’d prefer women’s parts, but this is intriguing all the same.” She looked at me. “How does it feel? When it locks in place?”
Vergis sniggered.
Inkiri tilted his head. “Donna, did you not explain that you were trans? What’s ace?”
I honestly wasn’t sure whether he was running interference for me or just genuinely interested in anything and everything related to human sexuality.
That made me wonder about bagu. They had to have queer bagu.
They probably didn’t use the same words or concepts we did, but we queers had been there for the paintings in Lascaux, and we’d be there when humans finally left the planet and went elsewhere.
Thinking about it, Aer was elsewhere, and I’d gone there, already proving my own point.
I wondered vaguely whether I’d get a statue, even a little one, to commemorate my efforts in queer exploration. Donna gave me this look that reminded me I got resting bitch face when I thought while other people were having conversations, so I shifted my focus back to that.
Donna crossed her arms and sighed as if she’d explained all this before.
“Asexual means I’m not aroused by just the sight of a nice pair of shoulders.
” She poked Inkiri’s, which really was a very nice pair.
“Or even a nice penis, barbed or otherwise, although I can appreciate it if it’s pretty.
” I was blushing furiously, and no one was stopping Donna.
“Trans means that I’m not the sex I was assigned at birth, but thank fuck for hormone therapy and surgical options. ”
Inkiri gave a grunt of acknowledgment. “We’ll try to accompany you to Dublin for your regular hormone therapy. We haven’t forgotten.”
That made me take notice and sit up just that much straighter. “Wait, are you saying there are still doctors in Dublin?”
Donna looked at me like I had grown a second head, which I preferred to her looking at me like I was about to tell her what a barb up my ass felt like.
“Yes, there are still doctors there. Emergency services are running, and medical staff are providing essential treatment to survivors. Were you thinking it was all the Wild West out here? Didn’t you pick up anything from the news?”
Her eyebrows had climbed up her forehead, and fine, maybe I hadn’t paid attention to every little thing, but that just went to show how…
out of it I had been. Traumatized. I was still in the process of realizing that, mostly because the stress was slowly leaving me.
That was all thanks to Inkiri, who made me feel safe for the first time in two years.
There was new stress because of the cola ash people, of course, but at least I could sleep without waking every two hours from freaky dreams or at any tiny little sound that might’ve been a monster out to eat me.
“I was—”
But Inkiri clicked and cupped my neck with his palm. “Rory was very scared after the apocalypse happened. He moved around a lot to run from the monsters, and he encountered other humans who were not as friendly as one would hope.”
That right there was why Inkiri was the best. I burrowed closer against his side, and he clicked soothingly and held me.
Donna sighed. “Well, shit. I’m sorry about that, honey. You’re not from around here, which can’t have been easy either.” She scooped up Wilson. “I’m good on my own, out here on the farm, but I’m still glad I have Wilson. And the other animals. Even the random, loudly fucking houseguests.”
Vergis snorted. “Do not throw me in with those two.”
“Muffin, you sound like your daddy sometimes, all grumpy. It only makes you cuter.” Kinnek looked at his kid with dreamy eyes. “Give me a kiss?”
Vergis turned away. “No, thank you.”
Kinnek’s face fell. “Aww, Muffin. Cruel Muffin.”
I licked my lips. “Weren’t we… I mean, didn’t we want to leave?” I hoped we were. Just in case Donna had more questions about bagu anatomy.
Inkiri brushed my cheek with his thumb. “Mmm, yes. Before we go, I have something for you.”
He left me standing with the others and went over to his massive backpack again.
This time, he had to do far less rummaging to find what he was looking for, even though what he drew out was small—a colorful cloth wrapped very artfully.
The cloth itself looked like the clothes I’d seen people wear in Esaka.
It had decorations on it that had been created by cutting it open and then artfully folding it back on itself to create a pattern, a lot like the arts and crafts you did with colored paper in pre-school.
Inkiri handed me the small bundle and looked at me expectantly.
“You got me a present?”
“Oh, he’s such a keeper,” Donna said. “Now, don’t dally. Open it!”
Inkiri watched as I worked the knot open to reveal the contents.
I immediately recognized the brooch Nokim had made for me.
It was bedded on several soft, shimmery scarves, although one or two were plainer, something more casual as scarves went.
Next to the brooch, there was a necklace with three pendants.
I recognized the adder stone and the coin.
The third was a vial, a bit smaller than the coin but teardrop shaped.
Inkiri clicked. “You like it.”
I was feeling hot and cold, overwhelmed in the best of ways. “Ink… Yes, of course I like it. No, wait, I love it. Did you get Nokim to make this?” I traced the necklace with my index finger, and Kinnek and Donna craned their necks to see.
Kinnek nodded approvingly. “He is an exceptional maker.”
“Also a pretty good cook. Can’t believe that bagu is still single,” Donna said.
Inkiri rubbed a warm hand over my back. “I asked him to make it, back in Esaka. I know you said you wanted to ask him about making this into something special, but I wanted you to have it when you woke up. The tiny glass container holds a lock of my hair, which Vergis suggested. Do you like it, sweet thing?”
I nodded. “A piece of Aer, a piece of Earth, and a piece of you.”
Inkiri nodded. “Yes. And a few scarves. Nothing exceptional, just something you can wear until I can get you nicer ones. Sonyo was eager to find these for you, back in Esaka.”
My heart squeezed tightly at the thought of that sweet bagu kid shopping for scarves for me all over Esaka. He’d probably done it while Inkiri had been right at my side, making sure I was as safe as I could be.
I ran my fingers over the scarves. “I’ll have to thank him. He did such a good job.”
“You can. When we’re next in Esaka,” Inkiri said.
Vergis groaned. “If you can’t put your necklace on yourself, Princess, maybe ask your mate to do it. Beats just staring like that. We should get going before I get roped into doing any more chores.”
Kinnek chuckled. “Muffin, doing your chores keeps you humble. That’s what your daddy always says.”
I ignored the two of them and looked up at Inkiri. “Will you? Put the necklace on me, please?”
Donna cooed, Wilson clucked, and my bagu beamed. I loved him so much.